Nearly one month after the Nilesat and Arabsat satellite operators took the Iranian channel Al-Alam off air, the wave of regional and international condemnation continues, reports Al-Alam.

Many analysts assert the decision by Arabsat and Nilesat, based in Saudi Arabia and Cairo respectively, was a strategic move against Al-Alam, which broadcasts in Arabic but is owned and operated by the Iranian governemnt. Iranian officials have also denounced the decision as an "illegal" act which they could file suit against.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Alam television, Sokneh Falak, a member of Basra provincial council, slammed the decision by the satellite providers. "We condemn Arabsat and Nilesat over dropping Al-Alam, a network stating right and reality," she said.

Jafar Mohammad Baqer, another member of the council, added that there was too much pressure on the two satellite companies from the Saudi government and some Persian Gulf states to drop Al-Alam.

Other media outlets are also feeling the wrath of censorship in Iraq, reports Asharq-Alawsat, raising fears of a crackdown on Iraq's often partisan media ahead of national elections early next year. Lawsuits have been filed or threatened against both foreign and local media outlets critical of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's government.

Asharq-Alawsat points to a recent incident where the British newspaper The Guardian was ordered by an Iraqi court to pay 100 million Iraqi dinars (USD 86,000) in compensation for an article “in which unnamed Iraqi intelligence officials accused Maliki of being increasingly authoritarian.”

At the same time, the Iraqi Department for Communications and Media has issued rules allowing it to shut down any media company that encourages "terrorism, violence and tensions," and requiring individual broadcasters to obtain licenses. The Iraqi government is also moving to censor some books, and is seeking powers to block websites deemed to be pornographic or inciting violence.

The tightening restrictions are reminiscent of the methods employed by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to muzzle the media. But Burhan Al-Shawi, general director of the Department for Communications and Media in Iraq, claims the measures are common around the world and are meant to bring some order to the industry.

Ziad Al-Ajili, the head of the Iraqi press freedom group the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, argues, "A free media in Iraq represents a real threat to all [the political] parties." Most news outlets in Iraq are funded by political factions “with an axe to grind, rivals to flay and careers to promote,” he continues. “Few are impartial.”