Iraq TV
Raid May Break Geneva Convention
By Reuters
BRUSSELS - The head of the world's biggest journalists' organization
said a U.S. bomb and missile attack on Iraqi television on Wednesday
was an attempt at censorship and may have breached the Geneva Conventions.
"I think there should
be a clear international investigation into whether or not this bombing
violates the Geneva Conventions," Aidan White, general secretary
of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), told Reuters.
"We have every reason
to believe this is an act of censorship against media that U.S. politicians
and military strategists don't like," he said.
A U.S. official in Washington
earlier said the raid had hit the main television station, a key telecommunications
vault and Baghdad satellite communications, damaging the government's
command and control capability.
But White said U.S. strikes
would have targeted television earlier if it had been a military target.
"There is no question
that this attack reflects the anger and frustration of political leaders
in the United States over the showing of prisoners on television and
the use of television to boost the morale of Saddam Hussein supporters,"
said White.
"This is the only credible
explanation for this attack."
He said the IFJ, which represents
more than 500,000 journalists in 100 countries, believed there was no
military justification for the raid, which recalled NATO's bombing of
Radio Television Serbia during the Kosovo war three years ago.
"Once again, we see
military and political commanders from the democratic world targeting
a television network simply because they don't like the message it gives
out," he said.
Despite the attack, Iraqi
television came on air at about 9 a.m., and state radio was also broadcasting
normally. Iraq's 24-hour international satellite television channel
ceased broadcasting during the raids but came back on air at about 0920
GMT with patriotic songs.
The IFJ said international
law forbade attacks on television and radio stations unless they were
used for military purposes, and there was no evidence this was the case
in Iraq.
Nor did the IFJ believe television
broadcasts could include coded messages to the Iraqi army. "The
idea that Iraqi soldiers are sitting in the desert watching television
to get their orders is absurd," White said.