Here’s a Guardian report from November 19, 2004, in which CNN Chief News Executive Eason Jordan is quoted telling a journalists’ conference in Portugal that journalists in Iraq have been arrested and tortured by US forces: US military ‘still failing to protect journalists in Iraq’. (Hat tip: Captain’s Quarters.)

Independent journalists operating in Iraq face arrest and even torture at the hands of the US military and the authorities are failing to act on promises to do more to protect them, news organisations have warned.

Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN, said there had been only a “limited amount of progress”, despite repeated meetings between news organisations and the US authorities.

“Actions speak louder than words. The reality is that at least 10 journalists have been killed by the US military, and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by US forces,” Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.

Mr Jordan highlighted the case of al-Arabiya journalist Abdel Kader al-Saadi, who was arrested in Falluja last week by US forces and remains in their custody even though no reason has yet been given for his detention.

“These actions and the fact that no one has been reprimanded would indicate that no one is taking responsibility. We hear good words but not the actions to back them up,” he added.

And please note: the problem goes much deeper than Eason Jordan. At the same News Xchange conference in Portugal, another CNN executive, Chris Cramer, told an audience that journalists were being “deliberately targeted for seeking out the truth.”