Shameful Treatment?

By Cernig

How well does AP treat its Iraqi employees? The ones who risk life and limb just working for a Western news agency, nevermind the risks involved in going outside the Green Zone in search of fodder for Western writers?

Not well, according to one Iraqi journalist who blogs under the pseudonym of Kassakhoon - the Arab name for a story-teller.

I just heard from a friend of mine that the prestigious American news agency, the Associated Press (AP) still treats its Iraqi employees in Baghdad office with a very humiliated way: they have to get searched twice before they get inside the office and they have to bring food with them, like construction workers, as they are not allowed to enter the kitchen and eat like other foreign staff.

What a shame....such companies must be grateful to those Iraqi employees because they are the ones who are behind their success in this war-devastated country as they have the big role in the work as we all know that the foreign journalist can't go out and do stories except to the Green Zone area.

But fortunately this is not the case with all news companies.

For instance, at the one I work with there is food for all of the employees....don't get me wrong with this as it is not a matter of food but instead it is a matter of showing respect to the other and let those real heroes feel they are partners with their foreign colleagues and their employer is not an extension to the U.S. occupation on their land.

Moreover, none of those AP's Iraqi employees has a written contract but instead they only have vocal ones and of course the purpose of this is clear: AP wants to make its obligations toward those people unclear and leave these obligations be decided personally unlike the foreigners who have their employer's commitments clear in their contacts before going to this war-torn country.

Another thing I heard from my friend is that AP is facing a lawsuit which has been filed by two of its former Iraqi employees at an Iraqi court as they were not paid the appropriate compensation when AP dismissed them last year.It is because they had no contracts to protect their rights so that they have to fight.

It is something really hurtful and shameful that in addition to danger the Iraqi journalists face everyday, their rights are lost as such companies making use of the lawless situation in Iraq.

I say to such companies: this not the way to say "thank you" to those people whom support has been the main reason behind keeping your work up all these years in this country.

Yes, this is a second hand report from an anonymous source. So, AP, what do you say, is it true? If it is, don't you think it's a shameful way to treat those who take risks just to work for you?

Update: Mind you, the way US forces treat Iraqi interpreters maimed in the line of duty could be described as shameful at the very least (hat tip - Kat).

In Baghdad, Diyar al-Bayati risked his life as the eyes and ears for Americans struggling to navigate a bewildering situation.

He accompanied soldiers on more than 200 combat missions, coaxing suspicious Iraqis, forging alliances and � beyond his interpreter duties � regularly taking up arms to fight alongside U.S. troops. When a roadside bomb in a 2006 ambush blew off his legs, al-Bayati kept firing at his unit's attackers until he lost consciousness.

Today, al-Bayati wonders why nobody � neither the government nor its contractors � is assuming long-term responsibility for him and hundreds of other seriously wounded interpreters who served the United States in Iraq.

Fellow refugees ferry al-Bayati around Salt Lake City, hoisting him in and out of a van. The military won't pay for maimed interpreters to get the same high-tech prosthetics provided to U.S. soldiers. Al-Bayati, 22, has learned America may give only limited citizenship, housing and medical treatment.

"They say 'limited,' " he said. "Why was our service in Iraq not 'limited'? When they asked us to do missions, we didn't say: 'Our job is limited.' "