Last Updated: May 30, 2003
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RESTON,
Va. -- The American Society of Newspaper Editors has asked Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld to provide a full public accounting of the events of April 8,
2003, when Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel -- known by the United States to be housing
more than 100 foreign journalists -- was shelled by U.S. forces, killing two
journalists and wounding three others.
In a letter to Rumsfeld,
Peter Bhatia, ASNE president, and Phil Bronstein, chair of the ASNE International
Committee, said the organization has been concerned for some time that the official
Pentagon explanation of the incident was "inadequate and perhaps inaccurate."
"We now have reason to believe,
based on a thorough report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, that a full
accounting of facts that are known by the military, or could be known, has not
been made," the letter states. "We believe such an accounting is necessary if
for no other reason than to prevent a needless tragedy in the future."
CPJ conducted a fact-gathering
mission on the incident. A report of their findings is available on the Web
at http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2003/palestine_hotel/palestine_hotel.html.
The full text of the ASNE letter is available at
http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=4706.
With about 800 members,
ASNE is the principal organization of American newspaper editors. It is active
in a number of areas, including open government, freedom of the press, journalism
credibility and ethics, newsroom management, diversity and readership.
