Iraq PM defends media curbs, praises journalists

By Wissam Mohammed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki paid tribute on Thursday to Iraqi journalists killed covering the four-year-old conflict and defended his government's restrictions on some media.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, 76 Iraqi journalists have been killed and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says that 12 have been kidnapped since 2004. The Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate puts the death toll at 214.

Underlining the continued threat journalists face, a Baghdad satellite television station run by the biggest Sunni political party briefly went off the air after a truck bomb exploded nearby, killing one employee and wounding 10.

The body of veteran journalist Khamail Muhsin, a reporter at a national radio station, was also found in western Baghdad on Thursday, two days after she went missing, her employers said.

"National media outlets that are committed to serve the truth have turned into a spearhead against terrorists who have launched a violent campaign against journalists faithful to their nation and people," said Maliki in a statement read by an aide at an event honouring slain Iraqi journalists.

The prime minister defended government crackdowns against media which he said "did not adhere to work ethic rules".

"Your government, in order to protect the lands and defend its peoples' interests, was forced to take very limited measures against a number of media outlets ... which used biased, provocative language that spurs hatred and abhorrence," he said.

"And these measures cannot be looked at as against the freedom of press. If any country in the world was subjected to what Iraqi suffers from today from terrorist operations, it would ... take severe punitive measures against media outlets."