In an open letter to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, it said the bombing also violated the Iraqi people's right to access to information.

"In order to understand the current conflict, the public need a plurality of

views and this must include reporting from the Iraqi media," IPI wrote.

It warned that the attack made it "more likely that in the future the destruction of a country's news-making facilities will become a central military aim in any conflict."

The compound in Baghdad that houses Iraqi state television, youth television, Kurdish radio and television channels as well as radio studios was bombed on Wednesday.

State television was blacked out for about 45 minutes before resuming transmission.

The television building is close to the information ministry, which tightly controls all media in Iraq and oversees a formidable propaganda machine.

The raids came after the state broadcaster carried footage of dead US soldiers, interviews with shaken prisoners of war and assurances from the regime that President Saddam Hussein remained in control.

WAR.WIRE