I refer to your report Some journalists disobeyed orders, says coordinator .

I have nothing personal against Zukri Valenteno. We are friends and always hug each other every time we meet during treasure hunts. I don't blame Zukri for his statements as he is unaware of what had transpired in Iraq.

We were in fact following instructions and none of us disobeyed orders. Our instructions from appointed team leaders in Baghdad were to follow the Mercy Malaysia volunteers on their hospital rounds. After all, were were there to 'capture the sufferings of the Iraqis'.

But it is not as simple as 'going in, report and get out'. Even going in, we were ambushed by bandits who shot at our convoy. As I said during the Aidcom presentation , it is a conflict zone and the situation is fluid, and anything can happen no matter how much care is taken.

I hope Zukri can explain what he meant by saying that some journalists were 'acting like heroes' and who he was referring to. We were all guilty of behaving like 'heroes' the moment we accepted the assignment.

Maybe Dr Jemilah Mahmood and Dr Baba Deani, who each took a bullet in the hip, were acting like 'heroes' too as they risked their lives sending medicine to needy hospitals? Perhaps the Syrian driver and Iraqi pharmacist were also acting like 'heroes', which is why they were killed in the ambush?

Despite all he said, Zukri admitted that he only had a week to prepare. This proves the point I made at the Aidcom seminar that the project was rushed. I agree that I could have said 'no' and not gone. I am guilty of having let my journalistic curiousity get the better of me.

I knew what I was getting myself into and I knew from the preliminary briefings that we were not fully prepared. My comments at Aidcom were meant to serve as a lesson for future joint Malaysian media teams and what we should or should not do when organising a reporting team for a conflict zone.

Once again, Zukri does not fully understand what happened in Iraq and his comments are not reflective of the true situation there. But I do not blame him, for while some of us were dodging bullets, he was 1,000km away in Amman, Jordan in the safety and comfort of his five-star hotel room.

Terence Fernandez is assistant news editor of The Sun.