Journalists Killed in 2013 - Motive Confirmed: Bashar al-Nuaimi

Al-Mosuliya TV
October 24, 2013, in Mosul, Iraq

Unidentified gunmen shot dead Bashar al-Nuaimi, a cameraman for the local Al-Mosuliya TV channel, near his home in the Al-Nabi Sheet neighborhood, news reports said.

Murad Ghazi, deputy manager of Al-Mosuliya, told CPJ that the channel often reported critically on the local government and had recently been targeted by a smear campaign that accused it of serving U.S. interests.

Omar Ghazi, the station's deputy administrative manager, told CPJ that several journalists had decided to quit the station after al-Nuaimi was murdered. They said they felt they lacked serious protection from the government.

In December 2013, another Al-Mosuliya journalist, Nawras al-Nuaimi, was shot dead by unknown militants outside her home.

Militant groups like the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq and Sham have historically targeted journalists in Mosul whom it considers collaborators with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, according to CPJ research.

With the resurgence of militant groups across the country, there has been a spike in general violence in the country as well as a rash of journalist killings in Mosul.

According to the Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, Iraqi security forces recently discovered a purported assassination list of 44 journalists during a raid on a building in Mosul that housed militants. It is not clear if any of the most recent killings were related to this list, but several journalists in Mosul say anti-government militants are targeting journalists considered supportive of the government.