(July 9, 2007) - A group calling itself the "Free Bilal Committee" has launched a Web site and asked for photojournalists' help to call attention to the fight to free Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein from jail in Baghdad, where he's been held without charges for more than a year.
The site (in English and Spanish) includes a petition that photojournalists can sign online that calls for Bilal's release, a poster than can be downloaded and displayed along with a similar tee-shirt, quotes from journalism organizations that have reported on the incident, and background information about the photographer's detention. The online signatures are updated on the site once daily.
Hussein was arrested by the U.S. military on April 12, 2006, in Ramadi. They say the photographer was in the company of two alleged insurgents, and in an apartment where there were bomb-making materials. The military has said that his arrest and detention were for "imperative reasons of security" and legal under United Nations' resolutions. The military has said that Hussein has "strong ties to insurgents" that go beyond his role as a journalist.
The photographer was part of AP's photo team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for their coverage of the war in Iraq.
AP has challenged the military to either charge Hussein with a crime, or release him. The photographer has not been charged with any crimes. AP says their research shows that U.N. resolutions do not allow for indefinite detention, and challenge the military to bring any evidence against Hussein before the Iraqi criminal justice system.
In an eMail mass communication yesterday photographer Victor Caivano wrote, "Bilal was put in jail for taking pictures that the military disliked. Bilal was one of the very few photographers who was able to photograph the Iraqi insurgency. Several lawyers and editors at the AP have reviewed Bilal's work and the military's allegations and found no basis to accuse Bilal of anything but doing committed journalism. AP president and CEO Tom Curley said it clearly: 'But this is not about Bilal Hussein. He is an innocent victim. It is about the Associated Press. We are the target. Freedom of the press is the target.'"
Caivano pointed out today that the U.S. military has since "backed off" their initial statement about the presence of bomb making materials. "They said to Charles Layton of the American Journalism Review that 'the IED materials were not relevant to Mr. Hussein's case.'"
The "Free Bilal Hussein Now!" Web site is online at www.freebilal.org.
AP has it's own Web page about the detention of Bilal Hussein, and it's online at www.ap.org/bilalhussein/.
