Lloyd inquest: NUJ backs calls for killers to be brought to justice

The NUJ is backing calls for the US soldiers, including their commanding officers, whom a coroner today found unlawfully killed ITN journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq, to be brought to justice.

The NUJ sad it is strongly critical of the US authorities for showing contempt for the British legal process by failing to co-operate with the inquest in any meaningful way: they refused to send witnesses to the inquest and edited the video material.

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: "We welcome the Coroner's decision to report his finding to the Attorney General and the DPP and believe they should immediately commence proceedings to bring the perpetrators of what is nothing short of a war crime, to justice. The killing of journalists with impunity must never, ever go unpunished. Any attempt to silence journalists in this way must never succeed.

"We would also like to again express our deepest sympathy to the family for their tragic loss. The inquest verdict has confirmed what we always suspected: that Terry's death was not an accident in the theatre of war but a callous act of murder."

NUJ national broadcasting organiser Paul McLaughlin said: "The inquest has examined a lot of key issues around the difficulties that covering a war presents, particularly in the area of embedded and unilateral reporting.

"Terry was a dedicated, respected and highly experienced journalist and that he and members of his team, Hussein Othman and Fred Nerac, should have been killed bravely trying to bring the British public the truth about the war in Iraq is a terrible and tragic loss."