American organizations condemn bombardment of the Iraqi TV
Iraq-USA, Politics, 3/28/2003

The Human rights and mass media watch defense organizations on Wednesday denounced the US bombardment of the Iraqi TV center, considering that it does not represent a legitimate target.

The director of the Human Rights Watch Organization which takes New York as a headquarters Kenneth Roth said " TV stations can not be attacked just for the fact they are used for campaigning activities." He added that the US "has to explain how an attack against the Iraqi TV will be useful for a military operation," considering that this attack is considered a violation for international laws.

On Tuesday evening the American bombardment targeted the building of the Iraqi official TV after it has broadcast pictures of the bodies and prisoners of the American army and the speech of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in which he stressed he still controls the country. The bombardment resulted in stopping TV broadcasting for 45 minutes.

Washington announced that broadcasting pictures for the prisoners is a violation for the Geneva Treaty and that Saddam Hussein is using the TV to communicate with his army.

For its part, the committee in charge of protecting journalists which takes New York as a headquarters showed more caution and confined to saying that it still studies the American statements on the use of the Iraqi TV for military purposes.

The committee said that "International humanitarian laws protect the audio-visual mass media which should not be targeted unless it is used for military objectives." The secretary general of Sans Frontier journalists Robert Minar which takes Paris as a headquarters said that the "Americans who recall the Geneva Treaty when the matter related to the war prisoners in Iraq, but forget this Treaty when they bombard the TV building which is the property of the civilian authorities and is therefore protected by the same treaties." In a statement Minar said " campaigning is part of the war weapons and it aims at alleviating the morale of the population" and civilians and their morale can not be considered as military objectives."

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