Reuters, Associate Press (AP), and UPI (United Press International) are the three main English language newswire services used by almost all major media outlets. You will often see them credited in newspapers under the headlines of national and international stories. The global managing editor of Reuters just recently stated that "the US military is entirely to blame for the deaths of three of its employees in Iraq." Though the major Australian newspapers have all reported this huge news, not surprisingly the US press hasn't touched it. The below article is from Australia's ABC network (see link below). Please help to build a better world by spreading this important information.

with very best wishes,

Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info team

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1247425.htm

US military blamed for media deaths in Iraq

The global managing editor of news provider Reuters says the US military is entirely to blame for the deaths of three of its employees in Iraq since the start of the war there in March 2003.

"All of them were killed by the American army," Reuters chief David Schlesinger told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in the southern Portuguese resort of Vilamoura, national news agency Lusa reported.

"There is no understanding on the part of the US military regarding the exercise of journalism," the agency quoted him as saying.

"We can't run the risk that journalists will become targets [in Iraq]. We must learn the lessons from these tragic cases."

Two Reuters photographers and a cameraman are among the more than 60 war-related deaths of media workers recorded in Iraq.

The most recent death occurred in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on November 1.

The US military says a cameraman killed there while on assignment for Reuters died in a gun battle between marines and insurgents.

But the Iraqi man's colleagues and family have said they believe he was shot by a US sniper.

Another Reuters cameraman, a Ukrainian citizen, was killed in April 2003 when a US Army tank fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.

A cameraman from Spain's Telecinco television network was also killed in the strike, which injured three other reporters.

In October 2003, a Palestinian cameraman for Reuters was killed near Abu Ghraib prison during a shootout.

The US military has denied direct responsibility for those deaths as well.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told the conference via satellite from Washington that those types of incidents were inevitable in a war.

"Media coverage in places of conflict is always dangerous," Lusa quoted him as saying.

He put the blame for the two deaths at the Palestine Hotel on Iraqi troops resisting the US invasion.

He accused the Iraqi troops of using civilian structures for military purposes, leading to confusion about what is a legitimate target.

Journalists at the Palestine Hotel, including many working for US-based organisations, had informed US military authorities that they were using the hotel as a base.