Aug. 17, 2004 – A resident of Pittsford, NY is suing national television network CBS for defamation, libel, violation of state civil rights law and intentional infliction of emotional distress after the network showed a picture of him while airing a segment on alleged terrorist suspects detained in prison camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Asif Iqbal, a man of Pakistani origin who has lived in the US for ten years, saw his picture aired on the CBS Evening News on August 4, after a television news anchor mentioned a detainee with the same name who alleges that guards at Guantanamo Bay brutalized him and other detainees. A CBS spokesperson would not comment to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on pending litigation. CBS is owned by media conglomerate Viacom, which also owns the the MTV, VH1 and Nickelodian networks, among others.
"Being wrongly identified as somebody associated with terrorism ? is nothing less than a nightmare," Iqbal's lawyer, A. Katherine Piccola, told the Democrat and Chronicle. "We can't respond to terrorism -- and the need to feed the 24-hour news cycle -- at the expense of private citizens like Asif."
