News-Info-Alerts

Re: Journalists Missing

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: March 27, 2003

"Newsday reporter, photographer still out of contact

By DEEPTI HAJELA
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- A Newsday reporter and photographer covering the war from Baghdad have not been heard from since the beginning of the week. Editors of the Long Island newspaper were investigating reports Wednesday that their two journalists were forced out of their hotel by Iraqi officials.

A freelance photojournalist, staying at the same hotel, was also unaccounted for as of Wednesday, a journalists group reported.

Newsday Writer Matt McAllester and photographer Moises Saman were last in contact with editors Monday afternoon _ Monday night in Iraq _ when they e-mailed to say they would be filing material, Editor Tony Marro said. The staffers had been in regular contact with the newspaper, getting in touch at least twice a day.

"We didn't hear from them Monday night, we didn't hear from them overnight ... We started trying to get in touch with other reporters," Marro said.

In bits and pieces from other reporters, Newsday editors learned that Iraqi officials arrived Monday night at the Palestine Hotel _ where the Newsday staffers and other journalists were staying _ to check visas and media credentials.

Those who couldn't provide what were considered correct documents were purportedly expelled, Marro said he was told. The Newsday staffers had entered the country about a month ago with limited visas, he said, but McAllester and Saman told editors recently that they had obtained full documentation.

Marro said that by Tuesday morning, there was no trace of McAllester and Saman at the hotel. "They were gone, the rooms cleaned," he said.

Joel Simon, acting director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said freelance photojournalist Molly Bingham was also considered unaccounted for.

Bingham, who had been Vice President Al Gore's official photographer during the Clinton administration, was also staying at the Palestine Hotel and had not been heard from since the beginning of the week. Simon said the committee did not have any information on Bingham's assignments or what organizations she was working for in Iraq.

Simon said his organization had received reports of a group of journalists being expelled. But he said there was no information on the size of the group, who was in it, whether reporters had actually been sent out of the country, or where they were.

Marro said other reporters had told Newsday that their two staffers were part of the group, and that they were being taken by bus to either Syria or Jordan. The newspaper has not been able to get in touch with Iraqi officials.
Spotty communications have made it difficult for media organizations to keep in touch with reporters in Iraq.
Two journalists have been killed so far covering the military action in Iraq.

Copyright © Newsday, Inc. "