Lawsuits have been filed or threatened against both foreign and local media outlets critical of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite Muslim-led government, which will seek re-election in national polls due in early 2010.This month an Iraqi court ordered Britain’s Guardian newspaper to pay 100 million Iraqi dinars ($86,000) in compensation for an article in which unnamed Iraqi intelligence officials accused Maliki of being increasingly authoritarian.
At the same time, the department for communications and media has issued rules under which it can close down any media company that encourages “terrorism, violence and tensions.” Broadcasters and their satellite trucks will have to be licensed, and the government has moved to censor books and to seek powers to block Web sites deemed to be pornographic or that incite conflict.
The measures evoke memories of the minders that shadowed journalists and laws used to muzzle them under Saddam Hussein. The lawsuits, in fact, are based on Saddam-era legislation that allows courts to impose the death penalty, if they so decide.“It is clear that there are political and military groups in Iraq that want to tape shut the mouths of the media,” said Ziad al-Ajili, the head of a Iraqi press freedom group the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory. “A free media in Iraq represents a real threat to all these parties.” Iraqi journalists have been frequently targeted in shootings and bombings since the 2003 invasion -- a well known television reporter was shot in the head and neck on Monday -- but the fall of Saddam’s regime also allowed the media sector to flourish. Baghdad Reuters
