Background
He was born and raised in Adelaide to parents, Gerry and Kath Morgan.
He was born and raised in Adelaide to parents, Gerry and Kath Morgan.
Moran was killed by a suicide car bomb at a checkpoint just outside Khurmal, in northeast Iraq near the border with Iran during the Iraq War. He was the first international media casualty of the Iraq war. According to the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Moran was one of three Australian cases where journalist(s) have been killed with impunity.
Paul Moran was the youngest in a family of four boys.
His alma mater was Sacred Heart College in Adelaide. In 1990, Moran moved to London, and it was here that he made his initial Middle East contacts.
Paul Moran was a freelance cameraman for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He moved to London 1990 and it was there that he made his initial Middle East contacts which were to inspire his interest in this region.
Moran"s working relationship with the Rendon Group and the Iraqi National Congress (Incorporated) led to a high-profile international news story that purported to document a covert Iraqi program to develop weapons of mass destruction prior to the Iraq War.
Moran worked for the American Broadcasting Company as a cameraman in northern Iraq in 2003. His group just arrived at a check point and Moran was shooting video when a car bomb exploded in a passing taxi, killing Moran and injuring Eric Campbell. Three or four other people besides Moran died at the checkpoint in Khurmal and 23 others in addition to Campbell were injured.
Paul Moran was recruited after Iraq invaded Kuwait to work for an exiled Kuwait television service.
Those who knew him said he preferred the independent life of a freelancer. He spent a year making a documentary about refugees and the humanitarian issues they faced, en titled, Dangerously Adrift.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalist, as of 2013 one-hundred and fifty journalist have been killed in Iraq since the United States invasion. Koïchiro Matsuura, the director of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said, "In a war that also includes a fierce media battle, the task of seeking independent information is especially vital if world public opinion is to avoid being the target of manipulation and propaganda" and the killing of journalists like Moran was a violation of Article 79 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention.
The non-for-profit funded a children"s library in Erbil, which is in the Kurdish area.
