[Media-watch] The nightmare that is media work in Iraq - Daily Star, Lebanon - 14/01/2005

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=11805

 The nightmare that is media work in Iraq

By Borzou Daragahi
Commentary by
Friday, January 14, 2005


The 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein's 
regime dangled the prospect of an Iraq with freedoms of the press 
unparalleled in the country's history and indeed in the Arab world. The fall 
of Saddam's regime spawned dozens of new publications and broadcast outlets 
staffed by Iraqi journalists. Al-Arabiyya, Al-Jazeera and other 
Arabic-language news channels descended on Iraq, hiring local talent and 
introducing new ideas and technologies. But the initial euphoria has faded 
as working conditions for Iraqi journalists have descended into a nightmare. 
Under the Baath regime, most Iraqi journalists worried about trouble from 
the state security apparatus and from Saddam's psychotic and capricious son, 
Odai, who ran wide swathes of the official media. Nowadays, they are subject 
to violence and harassment from all directions: guerrillas who deem 
journalists Western propaganda tools; U.S. soldiers who often view Arab 
media as mouthpieces of the insurgency; and officials of the Iraqi interim 
government who often do not respect the role of local journalists. "We face 
different dangers now and there is no law to protect journalists in Iraq," 
says Hussein Mohammed Ajeel, the head of investigative reporting at Al-Mada, 
a new Baghdad daily. "There are threats from three sides: the Americans 
might shoot you if they're ambushed; the Iraqi security forces might stop 
you or beat you if they suspect you're with the resistance; and the 
resistance might kill you if they think you're a spy." According to 
Reporters Without Borders, the French media advocacy organization, at least 
24 Iraqi journalists have been killed in Iraq in 2004. Among them were 
several people who were likely killed inadvertently by American soldiers, 
including Iraqi freelance television cameraman Diaa Najm, who was killed in 
the crossfire between U.S. soldiers and insurgents on Nov. 1 in Ramadi; and 
Al-Arabiyya correspondent Ali al-Khatib, killed by American gunfire in 
Baghdad on March 18. I first began to realize the troubles Iraqi journalists 
face while giving an informal talk on Western standards of accuracy and 
fairness to broadcast journalists in the Iraqi city of Baqouba last January, 
in a forum organized by an officer of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division. 
During the talk, I spoke high-mindedly of balanced, impartial journalism. 
But during the question-and-answer session, Iraqis asked how to dodge 
political attacks and violence from militants and U.S. soldiers alike. They 
were concerned with mundane matters, like getting past U.S. checkpoints 
without getting hurt. "We're unable to get access to anybody," one 
journalist said. "We're frightened."

This was before the country was convulsed by the violent outbreaks of last 
April and August, before the November confrontation between U.S. troops and 
fighters in Fallujah turned Iraqi cities into ghost towns, and before a 
spate of cold-blooded killings of ordinary Iraqi journalists.  All Iraqi 
journalists are targets, especially those brave enough to attend press 
conferences held by the interim government or the U.S. military at the 
Baghdad Convention Center, just inside the Green Zone, the 
American-controlled administrative center of the country. "If the resistance 
sees you leaving the press conference, they might think that you work with 
the Americans and they might kill you," says Ali Khalil, a reporter for 
Al-Zaman, a Baghdad daily. But even short of street-side executions, such as 
that of Al-Sharqiyya television reporter Likaa Abdelrazzak in Baghdad on 
Oct. 27, or kidnappings such as that of Sada Wasit newspaper reporter Raad 
Beriaej al-Azzawi south of the capital on Nov. 26, intimidation is rife. One 
reporter at Al-Mada was threatened with death after he wrote about alleged 
corruption in an Iraqi government ministry. Terrified, the reporter sought 
help from the Interior Ministry, which advised him to leave Iraq or face 
death. He's now in Syria. Another Iraqi journalist reporting on police 
patrols in the town of Allawi was caught by the resistance. They took his 
notes and tapes and told him to get out of town. Instead of angry letters to 
the editor, Iraqi media critics launch rockets like the Katyushas that 
crashed into the offices of Al-Mada earlier this year. Adding insult to 
injury is the disrespect Iraqi journalists get from senior officials of 
their own government. Many blithely ignore any representative from the local 
media, while welcoming foreign reporters with tea and sweets. Mohammed 
Abdullah Shahawani, the head of Iraqi intelligence, boasted to a French 
researcher that he refused to speak to any Iraqi journalist. "I don't trust 
them," he said. "They're not serious, and they never use the information we 
give them well."



One reporter said he was denied an interview with Defense Minister Hazem 
al-Shaalan, only to find out that the minister had granted an exclusive to 
The Washington Post days later.Such disrespect for local media can only 
serve to undermine journalists' standing and to create an atmosphere that 
makes it easier for violent groups to act with impunity against reporters 
trying to do their jobs.


Borzou Daragahi is a journalist based in Baghdad and Tehran. This commentary 
is

reprinted with permission from the Arab Reform Bulletin Vol. 2, issue 11 
(December 2004) www.CarnegieEndowment.org/ArabReform (c) 2004, Carnegie 
Endowment for International Peace



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