NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear is calling for “a rigorous search for the truth, a commitment to justice and a willingness to learn lessons” in advance of the inquest in to the death of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq which starts tomorrow (Tuesday).
For three and a half years since his death, the NUJ, alongside Terry Lloyd’s family, MPs and international journalists’ organisations, has been campaigning for an independent investigation into the killing and for those responsible to be brought to justice.
Terry Lloyd and his two colleagues, ITV News cameraman Fred Nerac and local translator Hussein Othman, were killed in Iraq on 22 March 2003 – apparently as a result of shots fired in an exchange between US and Iraqi armed forces.
A military police report into the deaths was prepared in 2004 and given to the MoD – but requests by the NUJ and Terry’s family for copies of that report have been refused. Further requests for details of US investigations into the incident and for action over delays in setting up the inquest have been refused.
Jeremy Dear said: “For more than three years those who have sought to find out the truth about Terry’s killing have faced obstruction, delay and indifference. A blanket of silence has been thrown over the circumstances surrounding Terry’s death. Today we begin lifting that blanket.
“In doing so there must be a rigorous search for the truth, a commitment to justice and a willingness to learn the lessons of this tragedy on behalf of all other journalists and media personnel who risk their lives so we can know the truth about war.”
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