[Media-watch] Media Watchdog deplores Iraq govt threat - ABC News -
13/11/2004
Julie-ann Davies
jadavies2004 at yahoo.co.uk
Sat Nov 13 09:57:26 GMT 2004
CPJ bulletin and image of original document available here:
http://www.cpj.org/news/2004/Iraq12nov04na.html
Julie-ann
_________________
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1242890.htm
Last Update: Saturday, November 13, 2004. 4:47pm (AEDT)
Media Watchdog deplores Iraq govt threat
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has said it is deeply
disturbed by a new directive from the Iraqi interim Government warning news
organisations to stick to the Government line on the US-led offensive in
Fallujah or face unspecified action.
"We are very troubled by this directive, which is an attempt to control news
coverage through Government coercion," the committee's executive director
Ann Cooper said in a statement.
"It damages the Government's credibility in establishing a free and
democratic society."
Invoking a 60-day state of emergency declared by Iraq's interim government
ahead of the assault that began on Monday, Iraq's Media High Commission
urged media to distinguish between insurgents and ordinary residents of the
Sunni Muslim city.
The authority, set up by the former US governor of Iraq, is intended to be
independent of the interim Government to encourage investment in the media
and deter state meddling after decades of strict control under Saddam
Hussein.
The commission statement sent to Reuters on Thursday bore the letterhead of
the Iraqi Prime Minister's office.
It said all media organisations operating in Iraq should "differentiate
between the innocent Fallujah residents who are not targeted by military
operations and terrorist groups that infiltrated the city and held its
people hostage under the pretext of resistance and jihad".
It said news organisations should "guide correspondents in Fallujah ... not
to promote unrealistic positions or project nationalist tags on terrorist
gangs of criminals and killers".
It also asked media to "set aside space in your news coverage to make the
position of the Iraqi government, which expresses the aspirations of most
Iraqis, clear".
"We hope you comply ... otherwise we regret we will be forced to take all
the legal measures to guarantee higher national interests," the statement
said, without elaborating.
The state of emergency, which covers all of Iraq except the Kurdish north,
gives the Prime Minister extra powers to try to crush the insurgency ahead
of elections due in January.
The media commission has not previously issued a call for media to take a
certain line and it was not clear what provoked Thursday's statement.
Some media organisations have in the past fallen foul of Iraq's interim
Government, which officially took over sovereignty in June.
Al Jazeera said in August it had been asked to close its Baghdad office for
one month for backing "criminals and gangsters" by airing parts of
videotapes from groups claiming to have seized or killed foreign hostages.
A month later it said that ban had been extended indefinitely.
Until Saddam's fall last year, an Information Ministry ran a state news
agency, radio and television, its employees staffed the newspapers, and its
"minders" kept foreign journalists on a tight rein.
Newspapers, magazines and radio stations have mushroomed since Saddam's fall
and operate without any official license.
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