Ah, The Sweet Air Of Freedom

[Gary Sisco]

er, uh. You'll get all the freedom the state will allow.

Iraqi Council Denies Access To 2 Arab Satellite Networks

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

BAGHDAD, Sept. 23 -- Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council today temporarily banned two popular Arab satellite television stations from covering the council's news conferences and entering government ministries because of what it called "irresponsible activities" that threaten the country's "democracy and stability" and encourage terrorism.

The two-week penalty was imposed on al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, two of the most popular news channels in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. The council accused the stations of violating vague "media-conduct rules" outlined for the first time in today's edict.

Those rules include a ban on statements promoting the return of the Baath Party or provoking sectarian strife. The council also ordered all residents to inform government authorities of any information they obtain about "any sabotage or criminal act or terrorist act or any act of violence that is meant to spread chaos and fear among the people of Iraq."

Several council members have made little secret of their disdain for al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, which they accuse of glorifying resistance attacks and being overly critical of Iraqi politicians who are cooperating with U.S. occupation forces.

The decision is "sending a signal that we will not any longer tolerate bad behavior by the media," said Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy, chairman of the council's media committee. "The signal will come out loud and clear. They will understand."

In issuing the order, the council began the dicey task -- without the benefit of a constitution or elected legitimacy -- of trying to draw a line between free expression and acts deemed impermissible in most nations, such as inciting violence. Although several members insisted such a step was necessary in the face of ongoing attacks on U.S.-led forces and civilian targets, organizations representing journalists condemned the edict as a blow to press freedom.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called the council's decision "deeply troubling."

"Penalizing media outlets sets a poor precedent and raises serious questions about how Iraqi authorities will handle the broadcast or publication of negative news," said Joel Campagna, the committee's Middle East program coordinator. "The Governing Council should encourage open media."

Shakir said the order, which is limited to council activities and government ministries under its control, was issued in consultation with the U.S. occupation authority. "We're all of the same mind," he said.

Attempts to reach spokesmen for the occupation authority by telephone tonight were unsuccessful. The order does not prevent the stations from operating in Iraq or attending events organized by the occupation authority.

The U.S. civil administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, has issued an order banning any incitement to violence, including through media outlets, but the reporting of such statements by journalists has so far not been deemed to violate that rule. The council's decision, however, does not include any exemption for simply reporting the statements of resistance groups.

Al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, which both have several correspondents in Iraq, have rankled U.S. officials and Iraqi political leaders with extensive coverage of resistance attacks. In some cases, the stations have aired inaccurate reports of extensive American and Iraqi casualties. In other cases, they have accused U.S. officials of covering up casualties.

The stations also have become a conduit for shadowy groups seeking to assert responsibility for attacks or threaten new assaults. They also have broadcast several recordings purportedly from deposed president Saddam Hussein in which he called on Iraqis to fight occupying forces.

"The two channels were banned because they have invested the most in inciting violence," said Entifadh Qanbar, a spokesman for Ahmed Chalabi, who holds the council's rotating presidency. "We hope other channels will draw a lesson from this decision."

Last month, the State Department condemned al-Arabiya for airing footage of masked men threatening to kill members of the Governing Council, calling it "irresponsible in the extreme."

At the Governing Council's first news conference, criticism of Arab television networks was a central theme. Muhammed Bahr Uloum, a Shiite Muslim cleric who has since suspended his membership in the council, accused the station of betraying the Iraqi people.

A spokesman for al-Jazeera, Jihad Ballout, said the station was "dismayed" by the Governing Council's action. "The first victim of such a decision is the truth," he said. "We try to give as comprehensive a picture as possible, but now a certain portion of the picture will be missing from our coverage."

Elsewhere today, U.S. soldiers backed by helicopters firing missiles attacked a farmhouse in Al-Sarj, west of Baghdad, killing three Iraqis and wounding three others, according to villagers quoted by the Associated Press. The U.S. military said the soldiers had followed suspected guerrillas into the village after a patrol was ambushed and said it knew of only one death, of a guerrilla fighter. Villagers insisted no one had fired on the Americans.

In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, U.S. Marines handed control to a Spanish-led multinational force after a three-week delay that followed the bombing of the Imam Ali mosque on Aug. 29. After the attack, which killed at least 95 people, militiamen from rival Shiite factions took to the streets and U.S. forces postponed the security transfer to organize and train a special Iraqi police force to protect the shrine.




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[Gary Sisco]

I guess it's the masks that make talk of killing state officials on television irresponsible? Seems like unmasked people do it all the time on American tv.

[patricia]

Well, Gary, you're close to the Canadian border as well as availing yourself to access of a wider range of both film and print media than most Americans do.
It is astounding to me that the news is so managed and elaborately choreographed on your side of the line.
There seemed to be no in-depth coverage of world news, in my experience when I lived there. I wondered, at the time, whether it was due to short attention spans or something more sinister, and that was before the WTC attack.
Considering that over half the population of the U.S. think that the WTC attack was connected to Iraq, it is not surprising to me that they are surprised that the reaction of the rest of the world to the present plight in Iraq, post war, does not parallel the view of the U.S.

Yes, truth is the first casuality.

Interesting article in Slate, by Fred Kaplan, reacting to the speech which Bush delivered at the U.N. See it at http://slate/msn.com/id/2088799

[Gary Sisco]

Ain't nothing today that isn't a click away, so it's not really practical to "ban" things anymore.

I might say, though, that censorship moves identical to this one in every way, when made by the FSLN in Nicaragua against *La Prensa* -- a newspaper that was funded at the time by the Reagan admin, which was actively waging war in Nicaragua, and which was taking the side of Reagan's terrorist campaign in every way and detail -- were used themselves by the US as a justification for their war. It was the equivalent of, say, Al Q today paying for the publication of one of the US's three major daily newspapers, and having Al Q's perspective printed in every detail on every issue, including incredible, intentional lies. Actually, that's not even a dramatic enough analogy, as there was an actual shooting war going on *in* Nicaragua, and tens of thousands were being murdered by the same Reaganists publishing the newspaper. And the FSLN's censorships were normally punishments for particularly indecent outrages, and "temporary" in that case meant a week, normally. Had the FSLN completely shut down *La Prensa,* my favorite toilet paper in those days, I can't imagine what the same Reaganists in charge today would have done.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not in favor of any sort of censorship, however temporary, as the only thing that can combat ideas is better ideas. I wasn't in support of the FSLN's censorship, either, and opposed it where it mattered: there. But it was at least understandable, not as censorship of ideas as there was no one in the country who didn't understand whose newspaper it was and who it spoke for and why, but as punishment. They would do things, for example, like print a made-up story about an acute shortage of this basic or that, when there was none, but then lots of people would run out and horde whatever basic we're talking about, like cooking oil, and, voila: a cooking oil shortage, where there hadn't been one, as the horders went to work making a killing. Which in Nicaragua meant hungry people, and lots of them.

Sometimes the shoe would be on the other foot, though, and some funny shit would happen. Nicas liked to smoke cigarettes, and so did I at the time. Once, *La Prensa* got a cigarette hording thing going and the price of a pack of cigarettes, when you could find one, shot through the roof. Talking like a week's wages a pack. It got so bad in Managua, particularly, where fully a third of the population lived at the time, that the FSLN printed full-page notices in its own newspaper announcing the official price of a pack of cigarettes and denouncing horders and sharks. So, I stuck that in my back pocket and went about my business after reading the morning papers. Later, I encountered a woman selling cigarettes on the street for more money than God could pay and showed her the gov't announcement. She shrugged. I took two packs of cigarettes out of her basket and gave her the uninflated price. She got all pissed off and cursed me out, big time.

It was the only time in my life I've ever been in a situation where I could say, with a shiteating grin, So call a cop. She really flipped at that remark. The cops were all Sandinistas, and I got to walk away cracking up and enjoying a good smoke.