Iraq: Media Ban on Arabic News Channels

posted by ewing2001 on Wednesday September 24, @03:47PM

Iraq imposes ban on Arabic news channels

CBC -Wed, 24 Sep 2003

Photo: The ban decision was taken by the U.S.-handpicked Iraqi council on Tuesday, September 23

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Governing Council has banned two Arabic satellite news channels from entering government buildings or covering news conferences for the next two weeks.

The Council accused Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya of using their broadcasts to incite violence in Iraq.

Both networks deny the claim.

The Council had considered closing the Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya bureaus in Iraq and expelling their journalists from the country.

Council spokesperson Entifadh Qanbar said the sanctions are a penalty for "promoting political violence, promoting killing of members of the government council, promoting killing of members of the U.S. coalition, putting on their screens videotapes of terrorists."

Both networks have broadcast messages from Iraqi resistance fighters vowing to continue their attacks on American troops.

Al-Arabiya's news director Salah Negam says there's no justification for the sanctions.

"I think it's not the right decision to ban media from covering an evolving democratic process," said Negam.

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The council accused both networks of almost being complicit in some recent attacks.

They claim the networks' camera crews have been arriving at locations minutes before bombs go off or shooting begins.

Foreign journalists are required by law to provide the authorities with any information they may have about pending terrorist activities.

The networks counter that their crews are responding to unspecified tips.

American officials have consistently complained about the two channels, saying their reporting is biased and false.

Western Media Censure Iraq Council's Ban On Arab TVs

Palestine Chronicle -Wednesday September 24, 2003

John Daniszewski, of the Baghdad bureau for the Los Angeles Times, strongly criticized the move.

"Of course we would oppose anything that stopped us doing our job and providing a full and accurate picture of what's going on in this country," Daniszewski said.

"It's important that journalists can work unimpeded," he added.

He further said covering the remnants of the ousted Baath Party did not mean correspondents were inciting disorder, violence or advocating a return of Saddam Hussein.

"If the Baath Party were to appear, it's important that people know about that," he told AFP.

Jerome Bony from France 2 television said the ban would not change the way journalists worked in Iraq, voicing concerns about the council's order to inform the authorities about attacks by Iraqis resisting U.S. occupation forces who ousted Saddam in April 2003.

"We are talking about a war, we are not making intelligence for either side," he said, adding that the Baath Party remains an integral part of the story.

"It's part of our job to find out what they are doing. If I can do an interview with Saddam Hussein I would do it. Everybody in the world wants to hear it," he added.

Drew Brown from Knight Ridder newspapers said it was "entirely bizarre" to have an interim leadership talking about freedom and democracy when their first concrete step taken was "to muzzle the press."

"Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are not necessarily balanced in their reporting and one could construe that with inciting violence but at the other end of the spectrum you have Fox News and they certainly are not balanced either.

"If the Governing Council is really serious about democracy then they are going to have to learn to take the good with the bad and a free, critical and maybe unfriendly press is part of that," he said.

Al Arabiya said it was "deeply saddened" by the council's decision, adding that it did not encourage violence and that objectivity and professionalism were hallmarks of its broadcasts since its launch.

"Al Arabiya can not pretend to ignore information that it receives from any party or from any region in the world, either in written form or filmed," it said in a statement.

The U.S.-sanctioned council also issued a list of rules it claims were broken by the two networks, and then served notice against all media that action without warning would be taken against any future infringements.

It said breaches of the rules posed a "risk to democracy" and the stability of Iraq and declared bans on inciting violence, disorder, or any reporting that directly or indirectly represents the ousted Baath party.

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