March 20, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 16, 1424

PARIS, March 19: International journalists’ rights organization Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has issued a warning to the United States, telling the US authorities not to obstruct the media in its reporting of the expected war in Iraq and demanding that the international media be allowed to work “freely and in safety.”

RSF also called into question the attitude of such US media officials as White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who on February 28 warned journalists that “if the military says something, I strongly urge all journalists to heed it,” for, he added, “it is in your own interest and that of your family, too. And I mean that.”

Based on its experience with US treatment of journalists attempting to report on America’s recent war in Afghanistan, RSF expressed its concern that the US military might censor journalists officially allowed to work among US forces and that those “who opted to work independently would not be protected.” It also called on US forces not to destroy Iraqi media facilities.