MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch says Iraq is investigating the slayings of four journalists but has yet to make any arrests or charge anyone for the attacks.
The journalists were all killed in Mosul, the capital of Iraq's Nineveh province, since early October with the most recent slaying Nov. 24, HRW said in a release Friday.
Iraqi authorities have not released any information related to the investigations.
Motives for the killings have yet to be determined.
Hassan Shaaban, head of the Center for the Legal Protection of Journalists, told the HRW terrorists "are systematically targeting journalists," but the government "is not protecting people."
"Journalists in Iraq face a double threat, from armed gangs gunning them down and prosecutors charging them, all because of what they write," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW. "The recent spate of assassinations of journalists has had a chilling effect on journalists, who risk being prosecuted by the very authorities that are supposed to protect them."
One journalist, whose name was not reported, said he fled Mosul for that reason.
"Mosul's journalists are caught between two fires," the journalist said. "If they are not targeted by terrorists, they're targeted by the government, which considers all Mosul residents terrorists."
"Iraqi authorities give lip service to investigating these assassinations, but can't even be bothered to interview the witnesses," Whitson said. "They have not made a single arrest, or filed a single charge, against gunmen running around killing journalists in broad daylight."
