The Journalists Association of Korea strongly protest against the recent U.S. military's detention in Baghdad, Iraq of Korean journalists, citing it as an act of infringement on the freedom of the press.

The U.S. military in Iraq is reported to have detained three Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) journalists for about four hours March 6 on suspicion of carrying explosives.

It is regrettable that U.S. soldiers forcibly held the Korean journalists, all handcuffed, after finding that there was no traces of explosives in their luggage and confirming that they are journalists from Korea to cover the ongoing postwar reconstruction process in Iraq.

What is more, the U.S. military authorities treated the Korean journalists in an inhumane manner by detaining them citing their internal regulations, despite the Korean Embassy in Iraq confirmed the journalists'identification and called for an immediate release of them.

We vividly remember the deaths of foreign journalists from the attacks by U.S. soldiers shortly after the Iraq war last year on civilian facilities, including the Palestine Hotel where foreign journalists stayed.

We can not contain our anger from the latest incident by the U.S. military authorities, defining it as a definite infringement on the freedom of the press.

It should be acknowledged that the incident has greatly damaged the image of the United States as a typical free democratic country as well as the U.S. military authorities in Iraq, at the same time downgrading their credibility at home and abroad.

We, the Journalists Association of Korea, call on both the U.S. military authorities in Iraq and the U.S. administration to respond to our demands in a sincere and prompt manner:

1. Make an official apology on the incident

2. Promise not to repeat similar incidents

3. Make public the internal regulations on which the U.S. military authorities
detained Korean journalists

We once again urge the U.S. military autho