IRAQ:: Media Under Growing Siege

[nosmokes]

original-IPS

IRAQ:
Media Under Growing Siege
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 dismal130th. 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."




















complete article here

[hfojvt]

1. our good friends Pakistan and Saudi Arabia

and where is the evil Cuba?

Way, way down there it turns out 3rd from the bottom.

The 'freest country in the world' (USA! USA! USA!) is 53rd.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19391

The index does seem biased against socialist countries, since 'the existence of a state monopoly' is considered bad. A state monopoly, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. How does that differ, for example, from a rich person's monopoly where public information and opinion is 'Taylor-made' (to quote the movie 'Mr. Smith goes to Washington')? The latter is not 'government repression' but 'economic repression' is just as likely to 'slant the news'. They kind of assume that government is the enemy of the people and that only government can repress freedom. Even in America, the story of Elijah Lovejoy says differently. His press was destroyed and his life taken by a pro-slavery mob.
http://www.state.il.us/hpa/lovejoy/bio.htm

[TNOE]

2. Now there's a surprise

NOT.