Hundreds in Hebron Mourn Palestinian Journalist Mazen Dana

“Don’t Kill the Truth” – Hundreds in Hebron Mourn Palestinian Journalist Mazen Dana Who Was Shot Dead by U.S. Troops in Baghdad


A military spokesman apologized for the killing, but tried to justify it within the context of the ongoing guerilla war in Iraq. He said "During war time, firing a warning shot is not a necessity. There is no time for a warning shot if there is potential for an ambush."

Reuters Press, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders all expressed outrage yesterday at the killing of Dana. They demanded a full, public investigation by the U.S. military and contested U.S. troops’ rules of engagement.

Dana is the eleventh journalist to die in combat in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March. That makes Iraq one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists, outranking hot spots like the West Bank and Colombia.

Dana was the second Reuters cameraman to die since the war began March 20. Taras Protsyuk died April 8 after an American tank fired at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad as U.S. troops took the city.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/19/1541231

Also included transcript of interview with:

* Paul Holmes, Worldwide General Editor of Political and General News, Reuters. He is the former Bureau chief of the Middle East where he supervised Mazen Dana during his reports of the situation in Israel and Palestine.
* Abed Qusini, Reuter’s cameraperson and a good friend of Mazen Dana. He joins us today from the West Bank. He last spoke to us in April after he witnessed the death of Nazeh Darwazeh, an Associated Press cameraman gunned down by an Israeli soldier.