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<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Soory can't remember if I sent this or
not</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>David</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>
<H2>November 18, 2004</H2>
<H3>Media Repression in 'Liberated' Land</H3>
<P>Media Repression in 'Liberated' Land</P>
<P>Dahr Jamail</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000124.php#more">http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000124.php#more</A><BR>BAGHDAD,
Nov 18 (IPS) - Journalists are increasingly being detained and threatened by the
U.S.-installed interim government in Iraq. Media have been stopped particularly
from covering recent horrific events in Fallujah.</P>
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<P>The "100 Orders" penned by former U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer
include Order 65 passed March 20 to establish an Iraqi communications and media
commission. This commission has powers to control the media because it has
complete control over licensing and regulating telecommunications, broadcasting,
information services and all other media establishments.</P>
<P>On June 28 when the United States handed over power to a 'sovereign' Iraqi
interim government, Bremer simply passed on the authority to Ayad Allawi, the
U.S.-installed interim prime minister who has had longstanding ties with the
British intelligence service MI6 and the CIA.</P>
<P>A glaring instance is the curbs placed on the Qatar-based TV channel
al-Jazeera.</P>
<P>Within days of the 'handover' of power to an interim Iraqi government last
summer, the Baghdad office of al-Jazeera was raided and closed by security
forces from the interim government. The network was accused of inaccurate
reporting and banned initially for one month from reporting out of Iraq.</P>
<P>The ban was then extended "indefinitely." On Tuesday this week the interim
government announced that any al-Jazeera journalist found reporting in Iraq
would be detained.</P>
<P>The al-Jazeera office in Baghdad had been bombed by a U.S. warplane during
the invasion of March last year. The TV channel had given their exact
coordinates to the Pentagon to avoid such an occurrence. One of their
journalists was killed in the bombing.</P>
<P>Al-Jazeera now broadcasts a daily apology "because we cannot cover Iraq news
well since our offices have been closed for over three months by orders from the
interim government."</P>
<P>Other instances of political repression abound. The media commission sent out
an order recently asking news organisations to "stick to the government line on
the U.S.-led offensive in Fallujah or face legal action." The warning was sent
on the letterhead of Allawi.</P>
<P>The letter 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."</P>
<P>Last week a journalist for the al-Arabiya network was detained by U.S. forces
outside Fallujah when he attempted to enter the besieged city.</P>
<P>Citing another al-Arabiya correspondent as its source, the U.S.-based
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the Arabic satellite station had
lost contact with Abdel Kader Saadi, a reporter and photographer living and
working in the Sunni Muslim city, on Nov. 11.</P>
<P>French freelance photographer Corentin Fleury was detained by the U.S.
military with his interpreter, 28 year-old Bahktiyar Abdulla Hadad when they
were leaving Fallujah just before the siege of the city began.</P>
<P>They had worked in the city for nine days leading up to the siege, and were
held for five days in a military detention facility outside the city.</P>
<P>"They were very nervous and they asked us what we saw, and looked over all my
photos, asking me questions about them," Fleury told IPS. "They asked where the
weapons were, what the neighborhoods were like, all of this."</P>
<P>Fleury said he had photographed homes destroyed by U.S. warplanes, and life
in the city leading up to the siege.</P>
<P>"They wanted information from me regarding the situation in Fallujah, but
they have yet to release my translator," he said. "I made a silly photo of him
holding a sniper rifle, and I think this is why they are holding him. I've been
trying to get information for the last five days on him, and the French embassy
has been trying to get him out, different journalists he's worked with are
sending letters, but there has been no luck so far."</P></DIV></DIV>
<P class=posted>Posted by Dahr_Jamail at November 18, 2004 04:39
PM</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>