US calls on Iraqi leaders to back press freedom

BAGHDAD, Mar 16 (Reuters) The US ambassador to Iraq said a free press was vital to democracy and called on Iraqi leaders to defend journalists and free speech.

''I know that without the right to speak freely, other rights will be denied and democracy will wither,'' Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement, Khalilzad said there had been growing press freedom since Saddam Hussein was toppled by U.S.-led forces in March 2003, saying more than 100 radio and television stations and up to 200 newspapers and magazines had been licensed since then.

''I urge you to defend this right,'' he said, adding the leaders should do all they could to protect journalists and to prosecute those responsible for attacks on them.

Three Iraqi journalists have been killed since March 7, raising the total number of journalists killed since the US-led invasion in March 2003 to 67.

The lastest was Muhsin Khudhair, editor of the Alef Ba magazine, who was gunned down in Baghdad on Tuesday.

Khalilzad urged Iraqi leaders to use the media to unite the various factions in the country.

He said he regretted casualties among journalists covering fighting between US-led forces and insurgents.

REUTERS SK RAI0524