By Prensa Latina,
Baghdad : Undoubtedly a hot issue here and everywhere else, the shoes hurled at US President George W. Bush by an Iraqi journalist revitalized people’s rejection of US occupation, expressed in marches to demand the release of their bold “hero.”
Thousands of people, mostly residents of Sadr City, clergy Moqtada Al-Sadr’s stronghold, staged demonstrations in main Baghdad streets to demand the release of Al-Boghdadiya satellite channel reporter Muntadher al-Zaydi, who, taking bodyguards by surprise, managed to hurl his two shoes at Bush as he yelled that “this is a gift from the Iraqi people; a kiss goodbye, dog,” a very pejorative term in the Arab-Islamic culture, during a press conference with Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki yesterday.
Demonstrators in Baghdad marched to the Journalists Union headquarters in northern al-Waziriya area to express their solidarity with the imprisoned reporter and condemn the National Press Center (NMC) conduct.
The NMC issued a communiqué today demanding a “public apology” by al-Boghdadiya channel leadership for what it described as “an act damaging the reputation of Iraqi journalists and journalism in general.”
Al-Boghdadiya channel urged Iraqi authorities to release “immediately” the reporter, “in line with the new era of democracy and freedom of speech promised to the Iraqi people by US authorities.”