[Media-watch] Iraqi media barred from court - News24, South Africa - 1/7/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1551477,00.html

Iraqi media barred from court
01/07/2004 19:58  - (SA)

Baghdad - A journalist covering Saddam Hussein's first appearance before a
special tribunal for Iraq's print media was thrown out of the courtroom
minutes before the hearing started, he said on Thursday.

Sadeq Rahim Jabr from the Arabic-language Al-Zaman newspaper said he had
been escorted to the tightly guarded hearing with the small number of other
accredited journalists but was told to leave at the last minute.

"I was already in the court and in the last minute just before Saddam was
supposed to come in, they told me that the judge issued a decree to ban
Al-Zaman and all Iraqi press from taking part in the proceedings, without
giving any reason," he said.

"I was told to leave the courtroom. I was shocked by the judge's decision as
it diminishes the role of the Iraqi press."

The journalist's claim that no other Iraqi print media were admitted could
not immediately be verified.

Only a small number of journalists pooling their work were given permission
to cover the landmark event which some are billing as the trial of the
century.

Edited by Anthea Jonathan