SPACE WIRE
BBC cameraman killed in landmine blast in northern Iraq
LONDON (AFP) Apr 02, 2003
A BBC cameraman was killed in northern Iraq Wednesday when he stepped on a landmine as he climbed out of his car, the corporation said.

Kaveh Golestan, 52, an Iranian freelance cameraman, was part of a four-man team filming at Kifri, the BBC said in a statement.

Producer Stuart Hughes, also caught in the blast, was taken to the American Military hospital in Sulaymaniya for treatment on an injured foot. Correspondent Jim Muir and their local translator were unhurt.

"Kaveh Golestan was an outstanding photojournalist who had worked in support of freedom of expression in his native Iran and elsewhere and was well known to many western news organisations," said BBC news director Richard Sambrook.

"He had worked with the BBC for many years. Our deepest sympathy goes to his family and friends," he said.

"This once again underlines the dangers faced by news teams covering the war in Iraq," he said.

Golestan, a Pulitzer prize-winning photographer, leaves a wife and a 19-year-old son.

The Iranian is the third journalist working for the British media to die in Iraq in the current conflict which began on March 20.

Gaby Rado, 48, fell from the roof of the Abu Sanaa hotel in Sulyamaniya, a major town in a Kurdish-controlled area, according to a statement from the independent ITN network, which produces news programmes for Channel 4.

ITN has already lost one journalist in the Iraq war, veteran television news correspondent Terry Lloyd who is suspected to have been killed by fire from allied forces near the southern city of Basra.

Lloyd's French cameraman Fred Nerac and Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman are still missing.

Paul Moran, an Australian cameraman, was killed in an apparent car bombing in northeast Iraq on March 22.

Moran, who worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was among five people who died in the incident at a checkpoint in Khurmal.

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