URGENT / Daniel Smith released by PM Maliki

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The American Reporter, Daniel Smith, detained in Iraq since last Friday, has been released on Wednesday by Iraq‘s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who allowed him to continue his reporting from Baghdad, according to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Press Freedoms Center’s Director.”Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki decided on Wednesday morning to release the American Journalist, Daniel Smith, and to allow him continue reporting from Iraq, in response to demands by our Center and other journalists,” Ziyad al-Ujeily told IraqiNews.com news agency.”Maliki’s step in a correct one, and was taken at the right time, following Smith’s detention by the Military Intelligence, which decided to force him out of Iraq, thing that could have created a diplomatic or political crisis for Iraq,” he said.Noteworthy is that Iraqi security forces in Baghdad had detained the American Reporter, Daniel Smith, who has been reporting from Iraq for the past 8 years, charging him with instigating popular protests in Baghdad.Smith had been reporting from Iraq since 2003, as a freelance correspondent for a number of international mass media.He is known as a press analyst for the International Crisis Group, based in New York, and has worked with the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) since 2008.SKH (TS)/SR80