Existing comment:
Yahya Abdul Hamid
Radio Rasheed
In Iraq
When ISIS militants seized Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, they made a list of journalists and hunted them down, one by one. Radio Rasheed director Yahya Abdul Hamid was at home when gunmen forced their way into his house, seized his computer and phone, and hauled him off. Within four hours, an unofficial militant court convicted him of collaborating with Iraqi security forces, and he was shot to death by a firing squad. His family was threatened with punishment if they held a funeral for him. Reporters Without Borders has called Mosul "a death trap for journalists" and "a cemetery for freedom of information." Since ISIS occupied the city in June 2014, nearly 50 journalists have been kidnapped and at least 13 have been executed. The fate of the others remains unknown. |