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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 9, April 10-April 27, 2009

Iraqi Government Spars with Media

Iraq's military filed a lawsuit to shut down operations of Al-Hayat and Al-Sharqiya, two major Arab news stations in Iraq, alleging false reports regarding orders to arrest ex-detainees recently released by the US, reports The Associated Press.

Both news outlets quoted military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Al-Moussawi as declaring the names of the ex-detainees and reported that photos of the released detainees had been distributed to checkpoints with orders to arrest them as part of an investigation into recent bombings in Baghdad. Al-Moussawi later refuted the quotes, saying "only ex-detainee files would be reviewed."

The United States is seeking to release most of the 20,000 remaining detainees in the prisons it controls as part of the handover of authority to the Iraqis and also to encourage reconciliation.

Consequently Al-Hayat retracted the comments on its website and later explained they came from another unnamed official. "After this correction, they are not supposed to file a case against us," said Mushrif Abbas, an Al-Hayat editor in Baghdad. However, Al-Moussawi protested that the retraction was insufficient and required that both media outlets publicly acknowledge the false attribution.

Al-Moussawi added that the complaint against Al-Hayat and Al-Sharqiya was filed with the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council and the Central Criminal Court. "The court would decide whether to order the media organization's correspondents to stop working," further reports the AP.

Iraqi authorities often have been criticized for imposing media restrictions since the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, and Iraqi journalism standards are often considered lax with little oversight.

Analyst Mark Lynch points out on Foreign Policy that Al-Hayat is not a sensationalist media outlet and is probably more accurate than other Arab media. Like many papers, "it's stronger in covering some issues than others, but it has consistently had some of the best coverage of Iraqi politics," he states.

Lynch notes that this may also be a move against the Saudi-owned newspaper, since the Iraqi government has been "deeply frustrated with Saudi Arabia's continuing foot-dragging on opening an embassy, forgiving debt, and so forth."

Above all, Lynch agrees that the attempt to ban Al-Hayat is a serious blow to media freedom at a watershed moment in Iraqi political life.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government accused the news media of deliberately seeking to promote sectarian strife, comment Rod Norland and Sam Dagher for The New York Times. The National Media Center of the Council of Ministers criticized local Arab and international news media concerning the series of arrests of members of the Awakening Council.

"These attempts by some media to depict wanted persons as heroes targeted by security forces provoke hateful sectarian strife in order to damage Iraqi unity," the government said in a statement, adding that such reports "make us wonder about the true goals of these campaigns and the groups behind them."

The arrests are raising concerns among American military officials and diplomats. The groups include ex-insurgents who turned against Al-Qaeda and joined forces with the Americans. Some of their leaders claim the government is trying to marginalize them despite their contribution to improved security.

The government commented that some news organizations have launched "a coordinated campaign against the Iraqi government" with recent reports of strife between US-allied Sunni paramilitaries and Nouri Al-Maliki's Shia-led government.

The accusations came as tensions between the government and the councils boiled over last month when a local 'awakening' group in central Baghdad launched a two-day uprising after the arrest of their leader, reports The Associated Press. The government and the US military said there was evidence he was involved in subversive and criminal activity.

In another development, an Iraqi cartoonist demanded an apology from the police in the Shia holy city of Karbala for having confiscated two satirical drawings of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and other government officials. "What happened was an offense to freedom," the cartoonist Salman Abed said in a telephone interview to The New York Times. "We want to build a new country on liberal and democratic foundations."

What started as a minor incident when the police seized two of the 15 large drawings that Mr. Abed had been exhibiting on a street in central Karbala, escalated. Norland and Dagher explain that "several Iraqi media outlets have posted some of the cartoons on their websites, undercutting the authorities’ effort to silence Mr. Abed."

In one cartoon, Mr. Abed depicted Al-Maliki as a frustrated mechanic struggling to repair a car. The license plate says "muhasasa," Arabic for the government’s ethnic and sectarian quotas. A road sign behind Al-Maliki says, "The road is long."

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