AP Seeks Action on Detained Photographer

[cal04]

The U.S. military's indefinite detention of an Associated Press photographer in Iraq, without charges, is an outrage and should be seen as such by the journalistic community, AP editors said Friday.

``We are angry, and we hope you are, too,'' AP International Editor John Daniszewski told a gathering of the Associated Press Managing Editors.

In interviews, the leaders of APME and the American Society of Newspaper Editors shared frustration with the case of Bilal Hussein, who has been held by the military since April. Later they and the president of the Associated Press Photo Managers signed a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urging him to release the photographer.

The editors said Hussein's arrest ``has denied our readers a part of the story'' and given the military justice system ``a black eye.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6176144,00.html