Friends and colleagues of freelance journalist Richard Wild, killed in Baghdad at the weekend, have rejected suggestions that he was “foolhardy” in his attempt to be a war reporter in Iraq.
Wild was shot at point-blank range outside the Iraqi Natural History Museum by a local assailant, who faded into the crowd after the killing.
Wild, a former soldier, had worked briefly for ITN and Channel 4. He was a picture archivist on the recent Channel 4 documentary The True Face of War, before heading off to Baghdad as a freelance reporter.
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He is understood to have been inspired to travel to Iraq by footage on the programme. Cassian Harrison, executive producer on The True Face of War, said Wild was inexperienced as a war reporter, but not rash.
“No, he was not foolhardy. When I worked with him he was very professional and very on the ball. What happened to him was very unfortunate,” he told Press Gazette.
Elizabeth Ray, a reporter on The Sunday Telegraph and former girlfriend of Wild, said he was “incredibly calm and gentle” and took lots of advice from people before he went to Iraq.
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“He had been in the army for a year and was the best person you could hope for in a crisis. What happened to him was terribly unlucky, but
definitely not foolhardy.”
Harrison, who was also a friend and colleague of James Miller, killed by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip in May, added: “I get the impression he may have been targeted as a westerner in a city where Western presence is becoming more resented.”
ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis said: “We are shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Richard Wild. In the six months he worked at ITN he was regarded as a dedicated and popular member of the newsroom teams.”
by Wale Azeez
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