Journalists today voted to demand a follow-up to the investigation into the unlawful killing of journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq four years ago.
Lloyd, an ITN correspondent, was hit by American fire as he approached the city of Basra not long after the US and British invasion in 2003.
An inquiry last October revealed that the act was an ‘unlawful killing’, although no charges were made.
The US have so far refused to undertake any criminal investigation or bring the perpetrators in front of a court of law, despite ITN’s recent announcement of the sixteen marines present at the scene.
Demands were made today for accountability for the killing. Journalist Diana Peasey said that answers were needed and the issue should be taken to the Pentagon. “There is still a lot to be known and discovered about this,” she claimed.
Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the NUJ, said that cases like that of Terry Lloyd indicated the need for investigations into the killing of journalists across the world. This has to happen until ‘justice not power games’ becomes the norm, he added.
This debate was yet another reminder of the dangers facing journalists in the current political climate, particularly in the wake of the disappearance of BBC Correspondent Alan Johnston in Gaza just over four weeks ago.
