Media Under Growing Siege

*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

*BAGHDAD, Jan. 10 (IPS) - The U.S. administration continues to tout Iraq
as a shining example of democracy in the Middle East, but press freedom
in Iraq has plummeted since the beginning of the occupation.*

Repression of free speech in Iraq was extreme already under the regime
of Saddam Hussein. The 2002 press freedom index of the watchdog
Reporters Without Borders ranked Iraq a dismal 130th. The 2006 index
pushes Iraq down to 154th position in a total of 168 listed countries,
though still ahead of Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, China and Iran.
North Korea is at the bottom of the table.

The index ranks countries by how they treat their media, looking at the
number of journalists who were murdered, threatened, had to flee or were
jailed by the state.

The end of Saddam's dictatorship had for a while brought hope of greater
press freedom. More than 200 new newspapers and a dozen television
channels opened. The hope did not last even weeks.

"We were overwhelmed by the change that accompanied what we thought was
the liberation of our country," journalist Said Ali who had earlier been
arrested many times for criticising Saddam's regime told IPS. "I was
arrested then for criticising low-ranking officials, and that was why I
did not stay in jail long. The change of system in 2003 brought me hope
of a better situation, but it proved false."

First, journalists began to face the danger of getting shot in the
streets by nervous U.S. soldiers. Many journalists were killed in such
firing. Later they began to face exile, arrest and bans on reporting
after they began to expose abuses against Iraqi civilians. Journalists
were targeted also for reporting the growing resistance to the occupation.

Order 65 of the "100 Orders" penned by former U.S. administrator in Iraq
L. Paul Bremer established a communications and media commission. Under
the order passed Mar. 20, 2004 the commission had complete control over
licensing and regulating telecommunications, broadcasting, information
services and all other media establishments.

On Jun. 28, 2004 when the United States supposedly handed power to a
"sovereign" interim government, Bremer simply passed on the authority to
U.S.-installed interim prime minister Ayad Allawi, who had longstanding
ties with the CIA and the British intelligence service MI6. These orders
have since been incorporated into the Iraqi constitution.

Within days of the "handover" of power to the interim Iraqi government,
security forces raided and shut down the Baghdad office of al-Jazeera
Arabic satellite channel.

The network was banned from reporting out of Iraq initially for a month,
but the ban was then extended "indefinitely", and remains in place
today. In November 2004 the Iraqi government announced that any
al-Jazeera journalist found reporting in Iraq would be detained.

Others were picked on too. "My friend Sophie-Anne Lamouf, a French
journalist who was covering Fallujah events from her hotel in Baghdad
was exiled," an Iraqi journalist told IPS. "I could not believe going
back to the dark ages was possible, but it is true."

Other journalists say resistance groups and criminal gangs are the
biggest threat today. Another threat to media workers has been abduction
either for ransom or to draw international attention to the kidnappers'
cause.

"The worst thing that happens to a journalist in Iraq is the fighters'
opinion that some of us are CIA spies," Iraqi journalist Maki al-Nazzal
told IPS. "This would definitely lead to thorough investigations and
sometimes has led to death."

During the siege of Fallujah in April 2004, 12 foreign journalists
reported freely and left safely. But the situation changed soon
afterwards. Under truce negotiations during that siege, U.S. forces
asked leaders of the city to expel al-Jazeera journalists as part of a
cease-fire agreement.

In September this year, the Iraqi government shut down the Baghdad
bureau of al-Jazeera's competitor al-Arabiya. And on Jan. 1 this year,
the Baghdad office of al-Sharqiya satellite channel which broadcasts
from Dubai was ordered closed by the Iraqi government on grounds of
"inciting sectarianism" following the Dec. 30 execution of Saddam
Hussein. A news reader had appeared wearing black mourning clothes.

All non-Iraqi journalists now base themselves in well-protected hotels.
For fear of resistance fighters, criminal gangs, the U.S. military or
death squads, most never leave the hotels. When they do, they go
"embedded" with the U.S. military.

According to the U.S. based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 92
journalists and 37 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since
the occupation began in March 2003. Reporters Without Borders says at
least 94 journalists and 45 media assistants have been killed since then.

Among the dead was IPS journalist Alaa Hassan who was shot and killed by
armed men as he drove to work Jun. 28 this year.

Reporters Without Borders added that Iraq was one of the world's worst
marketplaces for hostages, with at least 38 journalists kidnapped in
three years.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that at least 14
journalists have been killed by the U.S. military. Many Arab media
organisations say that number is far higher.

Death squads are now another growing threat to the media. The
al-Shaabiya satellite channel bureau was attacked by death squads last
year. The company chairman and many members of the staff were killed.