Militants from the Islamic State executed a local journalist in northern Iraq Friday, the AP reports.
After more than one month in IS captivity, Raad al-Azzawi was killed along with three other civilians in Iraq's Salahuddin province, near Takrit. International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the father of three was kidnapped after refusing to join IS ranks in Iraq, where he worked as a cameraman for Salahuddin Television.
Azzawi's killing is not the first time the group has targeted local media workers and activists in Iraq. In September, prominent Iraqi Human Rights lawyer, Samira Salih al-Nuaimi, was kidnapped and later killed by the militants after criticizing their brutal crack down of religious minorities in northern Iraq.
Since the August killing of American journalist James Foley at the hands of IS, the militant group has beheaded several foreign journalists, citing the U.S.-led air campaign against them as the instigator. According to figures collected by the Committee to Protect Journalists, (CPJ) American freelancer Steven Sotloff, who's death followed James Foley's, was the 71st journalist to be killed while covering the Syrian conflict over the last 3 and a half years. In additon to that number, CPJ believes at least 80 journalists have been kidnapped since the conflcit began, 20 of whom remain in captivity. The remaining, the group says, are largely Syrians, underscoring the dangers local media and citizen journalists face in the conflict as well.
IS is well known for its far-reaching social media propoganda, and recently released a multi-point 'guide' for journalists who wish to work in areas controlled by the group. The decree, which detailed blacklisted publications, instructions for how to conduct personal Twitter handles and the requirement for all journalists to swear allegiance to IS, prompted a mass exudus of remaining foreign and local journalists in Raqqa.
