[Media-watch] Iraq committee imposes restrictions on news reporting - Financial Times - 27/07/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087374001384

 Iraq sets up committee to impose restrictions on news reportingBy Nicolas
Pelham in BaghdadPublished: July 27 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: July 27 2004
5:00
Iyad Allawi, Iraq's prime minister, has established a media committee to
impose restrictions on print and broadcast media, a government official
announced yesterday. The step underlines an aggressive new attitude towards
press freedoms, in spite of US efforts to nurture independent media.


Ibrahim Janabi, appointed to head the new Higher Media Commission, told the
FT the restrictions - known as "red lines" - had yet to be finalised, but
would include unwarranted criticism of the prime minister. He singled out
last Friday's sermon by Moqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand Shia cleric, who mocked
Mr Allawi as America's "tail".

Outlets that broadcast the sermon could be banned, he said.

The formation of Mr Janabi's committee appears to mark a step back from
Washington's democratic vision for postwar Iraq. Before last month's
handover of sovereignty, US officials boasted that Iraq enjoyed the Arab
world's least regulated media. One of Paul Bremer's first acts as US
administrator was to abolish the information ministry, prompting a profusion
of non-government newspapers, radio stations and television stations to
emerge.

Mr Janabi said his committee would soon relocate to the old information
ministry building, which is undergoing refurbishment.

Many of the old information ministry's 5,000 former employees have welcomed
Mr Janabi's commission as a first step to regaining their jobs axed by Mr
Bremer. One of Mr Janabi's first decisions was to extend payment of their
salaries to last month.

But Mr Janabi sought to damp fears that he was reviving the old pre-war
information ministry, which controlled all media outlets in Iraq before the
US-led invasion. He said he would not introduce minders for foreign
journalists, but there would be a voluntary registration process.

The measures come amid growing government nervousness that Arab satellite
channels are giving publicity to Iraq's rebel groups. Yesterday Iraq's
foreign minister, Hosheyr Zebari, denounced the Arabic satellite channel,
al-Jazeera, which has broadcast video recordings it received from
insurgents.

"In a difficult security situation, we need to fight the terrorists by all
means, and one of the main means is the media. We need them all to
co-operate, even the private sector. It's for national security," said Mr
Janabi, a former Iraqi intelligence officer who for a decade served as Mr
Allawi's eyes and ears in neighbouring Jordan, but has never worked as a
journalist. "The red lines must be very clear. Whenever we find someone
endangering national security, we will give notes to our legal committee
that they are breaking the rules," he said.

Noting that al-Jazeera broadcast part of Mr Sadr's anti-Allawi sermon, he
warned: "If they do it again, we will give them two weeks to correct the
policy, and after that we will tell them sorry we need to close your
office."

He also said that an independent media and communication committee
established by Mr Bremer to regulate the broadcast media would continue to
operate, although subject to his higher commission's advice.

The coalition-appointed board of governors for the state broadcaster,
Iraqia, was also being absorbed into his committee, Mr Janabi said, although
under pressure from London and Washington final arrangements have yet to be
ironed out.

Harris, the American contractor chosen by the Coalition Provisional
Authority to run Iraqia, could also lose its $96m (€79m, £52m) annual
contract, if its broadcasts wavered from "the targets we want", said Mr
Janabi.

A current affairs editor at Iraqia, who requested anonymity, criticised the
move: "I am afraid we will now be a channel controlled by the state," he
said, "all the signs are they want to use this as their mouthpiece."

Opposition politicians also attacked the new body, saying that Mr Allawi had
established committees for oil and security, as well as the media, in a bid
to get total control of the state machinery.

Allies of Mr Allawi, however, pointed to his decision last week to reverse a
US-led coalition ban on Mr Sadr's newspaper, al-Hauza, as evidence of his
commitment to press freedom.
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