An Al Arabiya reporter was finally freed in January, four months after US troops arrested him without charge in Baghdad. Majid Hameed, a 21-year old Iraqi journalist who also works for Reuters, was released a day after Brigadier General Mark Kimmit, deputy director of US army operations in Iraq, visited the Dubai-based news station for an interview.
US forces had arrested Hameed along with 15 others last September during the funeral of a relative that was allegedly killed in insurgent-related activities. Hameed was never charged or allowed to seek legal counseling, and was reportedly questioned over his unfavorable coverage, according to a letter addressed to the US ambassador to Iraq by Al Arabiya general manger Abdulrahman Al Rashed. “This is absurd,” Al Rashed wrote, denying that Arabiya reports had provoked anti-American sentiment in the country.
Al Rashed said a Pentagon representative in Dubai confirmed the existence of evidence “linking Majid to insurgency activities,” but that no such evidence was ever made public.
“No legal convention or international law upholds the concept of guilt by association,”
Al Rashed wrote.
Al Arabiya is also facing a ban on one of its journalist from Israeli authorities. The networks reporter Basim El Jamal has been denied access to country for “security reasons” and contacts with “hostile groups,” following interviews with members of the Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade.