Iraqi Government Applies Pressure to Journalists

[Anywho6]

The following is a report from NPR's Anne Garrels. When I heard it this piece yesterday, I couldn't help but think that this is possibly a proving ground for future actions here in the U.S. Like everything else going on this week, it's very sobering.

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All Things Considered, September 29, 2006 · As many as 130 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 -- the vast majority of them Iraqis. Iraqi journalists are under attack from both Sunni and Shiite extremists. And the U.S. military has arrested and detained some for months at a time.

Now the Iraqi government is stepping up pressure on the country's journalists, accusing them of inciting violence.

In Iraq, official corruption is on the increase, as is reporting on it. In response, the government is stepping up its pressure on reporters. Under a broad set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government, roughly a dozen iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year.

The authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have been the toughest, sentencing one journalist to 30 years for insulting the Kurdish provincial leader. It was only when international human rights groups protested that the sentence was reduced.

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Full story at audio link at the top of the page:
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6168129>