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Iraqis Now Enjoying Media Freedoms
EFL.
On one street in the capital, a vendor shouts out news he would have been arrested for trumpeting just weeks ago: "Read all about Saddam's man-boy love double!" A woman skids her car to a stop and asks for a copy of Assaah, a newspaper published in Iraq without government supervision. Iraqis are now enjoying media freedoms unheard of in the eight decades since the nation was established by British colonialists. During Saddam Hussein's 33-year reign, no foreign newspapers were allowed into Iraq. Satellite dishes were banned, and cable television was prohibitively expensive. The sole windows to the outside world were radio stations like the BBC, Paris-based Radio Monte Carlo, and the U.S. government's SAWA Radio. Since the regime was overthrown in early April, a throng of freewheeling newspapers, radio and television stations have sprung up to replace the turgid, sycophantic media under Saddam. Kurdish and Arab, left and right, even two separate coalition-run radio stations - all are chiming in. Suddenly, there are more than a dozen newspapers to choose from, compared to five state-controlled dailies of the past. People can buy satellite dishes and watch the channel of their choice, or listen to local radio stations denouncing Saddam as a corrupt and ruthless despot.

In the days immediately following the dictatorship's collapse, the country was left without any newspapers. State-run television and radio stations went off the air. The vacuum was quickly filled by papers published by anti-Saddam groups in northern Iraq's Kurdish areas, such as al-Itihad ("Union") and Nidaa al-Mustaqbal ("Call of the Future"), which made their way to Baghdad. The London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat became the first foreign daily to be sold in the country on April 17. Within days, new newspapers began appearing on the streets. Three independent radio stations and several local television stations went on the air. Still, some journalists say they're unsure whether the current media scene is a reflection of newly found freedoms or a just chaotic post-dictatorial free-for-all.
There's a difference?
"It is still too early to speak about the freedom of the press," said Ali Abdel-Amir, senior editor of Nidaa al-Mustaqbal, a newspaper of the longtime exile group, the Iraqi National Congress. "There is anarchy now," Abdel-Amir said. "Many of these people working in the press are not professional or objective."
He must have been trained by the BBC or the New York Times.
Among the first new papers to start publishing in Baghdad was the London-based Az-Zaman, owned by Saad al-Bazaz, former editor in chief of the government daily state-owned Al-Jumhuriya who defected a decade ago. Assaah - "The Hour" - is published by Sheik Ahmed al-Kubeisy, a Sunni Muslim cleric who fled Iraq few years ago. Fajr Baghdad - or "Baghdad Dawn" — bills itself as "Iraq's first democratic and independent newspaper." Its front-page generally focus on daily worries such as the lack of gasoline and electricity, and the looting and lawlessness that have swept the nation since Saddam's ouster.

Saddam's departure has also meant that Iraqis can now own once-banned satellite dishes. Thousands of newly made or imported dishes are on sale throughout the city. The U.S.-led military coalition that occupied the country has two radio networks of its own, one run by former employees of station previously owned by Saddam's elder son, Odai. Information Radio features news announcements, Arabic music and even Western music like the occasional rendition of "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News. Another station, Radio of the Iraqi Republic, run by former Information Ministry officials, urges listeners to forget the past and work together for a better future. In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, the first local television station went on the air April 16, days after Baghdad fell. Local stations followed in other provinces. Karbala Television, run by 10 volunteers using old equipment left over from the state broadcaster, airs seven hours of programing dealing with how to cope with the province's war-damaged infrastructure. "We are a free voice that does not belong to any party. We wanted this channel to be free and speak in the name of all Iraqi people," said the station's director Khalil al-Tayar. In Baghdad, viewers can tune into the coalition information channel or watch channels from neighboring Iran, primarily the Arabic-language Al-Aalam.

Ali al-Fatlawi, a reporter who worked previously for government newspapers, says working for Assaah is much better. "There is more freedom and more openness," he said. "The red lines have been lifted, and we can express ourselves freely and without threats and no journalists have been fed into a shredder."
Perhaps these guys could teach Harold Raines a thing or two about reporting.
Posted by: Steve White 2003-05-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=14434