[Media-watch] Iraqi government shuts Al-Jazeera station/RSF statement on closure - Newsday and RSF - 08/08/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/iraq/sns-ap-iraq-al-jazeera,0,2107917.story?coll=ny-top-headlines



Iraqi Government Shuts Al-Jazeera Station



By MARIAM FAM
Associated Press Writer

August 8, 2004, 11:29 AM EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Police ordered Al-Jazeera's employees out of their newsroom
Saturday after the Iraqi government accused the Arab satellite channel of
inciting violence and closed its office for 30 days.

Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said the closure was intended to give
the station "a chance to re-adjust their policy against Iraq."

"They have been showing a lot of crimes and criminals on TV, and they
transfer a bad picture about Iraq and about Iraqis and encourage criminals
to increase their activities," he said. "We want to protect our people."

Al-Jazeera officials said the closure was an ominous violation of freedom of
the press. Haider al-Mulla, a lawyer for Al-Jazeera, said the channel would
respect the decision but study its legal options.

Senior Iraqi police officials arrived at the station's central Baghdad
office Saturday evening and, in an extraordinary scene broadcast live on the
network, sat at a table drinking soft drinks with senior staff as they
calmly explained the order.

Al-Mullah said the closure decision was unclear and objected to its
phrasing. The police said they had to execute the order anyway, asking
al-Mullah to take his complaints to the Interior Ministry.

The police refused to leave the office before locking the newsroom and
ordering employees to go home. Crossing his wrists as if handcuffed, a
police officer warned al-Mullah against violating the decision.

"It is a regrettable decision, but Al-Jazeera will endeavor to cover the
situation in Iraq as best as we can within the constraints," Jihad Ballout,
the network's spokesman, said.

In an Arab world rife with conspiracy theories, the decision to close the
offices of the popular channel could reinforce the perception that decisions
by Iraq's interim government are influenced by the United States, which has
long complained about Al-Jazeera's coverage.

Government ministers in Iraq have grown increasingly critical of the
television station in recent weeks.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Saturday that the government had
convened an independent commission a month ago to monitor Al-Jazeera's daily
coverage "to see what kind of violence they are advocating, inciting hatred
and problems and racial tension."

Based on the commission's finding, the National Security Committee ordered
the monthlong closure, Allawi said.

Iraq's now-disbanded Governing Council, in place during the U.S. occupation,
banned the station's reporters from entering its offices or covering its
news conferences for a month in January because it had reportedly shown
disrespect toward prominent Iraqis.

That was the second such ban imposed by the Governing Council on the
station.

Al-Jazeera has occasionally run into problems with authorities in other Arab
countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and the former
Iraqi regime. Unlike Arab state-run media, the station often airs views of
local opposition figures and their criticisms of their countries' rulers.

Senior U.S. officials also have frequently criticized the station for its
coverage of the war in Iraq. They accuse it of being an outlet for the
al-Qaida terror network for broadcasting videotapes and audiotapes
purportedly from Osama bin Laden or his aides. Al-Jazeera denies the
allegations.







http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=11115



8 August 2004

Government shuts down Al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad

Reporters Without Borders today denounced as a "serious blow to press
freedom" the Iraqi interim government's order to the pan-Arab satellite TV
network Al-Jazeera to close its Baghdad office for a month and called for an
immediate explanation.

"We are extremely concerned about persistent episodes of censorship in
Iraq," it said, noting that the government has obstructed Al-Jazeera's work
before.

Interior minister Falah al-Naqib told the US TV network CNN that the 7
August order was aimed at protecting Iraqis and that the government did not
want Al-Jazeera or anyone else endangering civil peace in Iraq. The minister
had said a few days earlier that some stations were encouraging kidnapping
by showing pictures of hostages under threat of execution.

Reporters Without Borders strongly protested against a month-long ban in
February on Al-Jazeera covering the activities of the then transitional
Governing Council.

The Council had also shut down the local operations of the satellite TV
station Al-Arabiya on 24 November last year until it promised in writing not
to encourage terrorism.