Watchdogs raise alarm for media freedom in Iraq

By Jim Lobe

Washington, DC, Sept. 25 (IPS)— The barring of two major Arab satellite TV stations from Iraqi government ministries and press events held by the country’s governing council is an ominous sign for the future of the media in the nation, warn global press freedom groups.

New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) this week said it was “deeply troubled” by the decision of the council, which makes recommendations to the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders “strongly condemned” the decision, calling it a “clear and blatant attack on press freedom.”

The 25-person council says it took the action because of what it called “irresponsible activities” that threaten the country’s “democracy and stability.” Before the decision it had been rumored that the body had decided to expel Al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya from Iraq altogether.

In an interview Wednesday with Radio Netherlands, council spokesman Entifadh Qanbar said the two stations were inciting violence against Iraqi and occupation authorities.

“This is not censorship. This is putting a stop to a system which is well funded by governments to promote violence in Iraq,” he said, citing broadcasts by the two stations of tapes of ousted President Saddam Hussein and others calling for resistance against the occupation.

The head of the council’s media committee, Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy, said the decision was designed to send “a signal that we will not any longer tolerate bad behavior by the media.”

But CPJ called the action disturbing. “CPJ finds these sanctions deeply troubling,” said its Middle East Program Coordinator Joel Campagna.

“Penalizing media outlets sets a poor precedent and raises serious questions about how Iraqi authorities will handle the broadcast or publication of negative news. The governing council should encourage open media,” he said.

The controversy comes amid growing concerns about the CPA’s attitude toward the press and a number of recent incidents in which media workers were assaulted by occupation troops.

While Iraq has seen a proliferation of newspapers since US troops entered Baghdad in early April, a few have been summarily closed after the CPA accused them of incitement against occupation forces.

In addition, the Iraq Media Network (IMN), a CPA-run project put together by a major US defense contractor, has reportedly taken over a number of radio stations in various parts of the country, effectively silencing independent voices.

Even more worrisome, according to human rights groups, are recent attacks on reporters. Last month, US soldiers shot and killed Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana while he was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in a Baghdad suburb, the site of a fatal mortar attack.

After an investigation denounced by RSF as a “sham,” the Pentagon announced Tuesday that the soldiers, who said they had mistaken Dana’s camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, had “acted within the rules of engagement.”

Dana was the fifth journalist killed by US fire in Iraq since the beginning of the war.

Last week, Associated Press (AP) photographer Karim Kadhim and his driver Qassim al-Saidi were fired on by US soldiers when they approached a tank that was blocking the road near Khaldiya, the site of an earlier attack that day on US soldiers.

Their car was hit by machine gunfire at least 20 times despite being clearly marked “PRESS” in large black letters. Only by jumping from the car did the media workers avoid injury or death, according to an account by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which investigated the incident.

Kadhim was detained by US soldiers again Tuesday on a different highway west of Baghdad. He and a different driver were handcuffed and forced to stand in temperatures of some 110 degrees Fahrenheit and were denied water and the use of a telephone while soldiers accused them of being insurgents, according to AP.

They were eventually taken to a US base nearby, where commanding officer Major Eric Wick apologized, insisting that the incident was based on a “misunderstanding on our part.”

HRW also interviewed an Iraqi news assistant for the New York Times, Ghaith Abd al-Ahad, who reported that on Sept. 1, he had been twice thrown to the ground, handcuffed and verbally abused at a US military checkpoint on a highway 20 miles north of Baghdad, the scene of an attack that killed one US soldier earlier in the day.

The assaults took place despite Abd al-Ahad having shown the soldiers his press card and informing them that he worked for the Times. “One of the soldiers had his knee on my neck,” he said. “When I said ‘I work for the New York Times’, he said, ‘Oh, so you speak English’, and he pushed his knee down harder.”

The decision to restrict personnel from Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya has yet to be taken up by the CPA, the only body in Iraq that has executive authority.

It followed the attempted assassination Sunday on council member Akila Al-Hashimi, who died of her wounds Thursday. Two days earlier, Al-Arabiya had broadcast film showing armed and hooded men threatening to kill council members and anyone who worked with them.

Both Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera have broadcast several audio recordings purportedly by Saddam calling on Iraqis to fight the occupation.

US officials have strongly criticized both stations, accusing them of giving too much coverage to attacks on US forces and not enough on the progress made by the CPA to restore services and encourage popular participation in public affairs.

But Robert Menard, director of RSF, said the curbs on the two stations cannot be justified. “When media such as these broadcast calls by terrorist groups or extremist political parties for armed violence, they are not themselves guilty of incitement to violence.”

“They are doing their job of informing the public and dealing journalistically with the important subject of terrorism, a phenomenon they have not themselves created.”

The Bush administration has long had an ambivalent relationship with Qatar-based Al-Jazeera.

During the Afghan campaign in late 2001, US precision bombs destroyed Al-Jazeera’s office in Kabul. The Pentagon later insisted it was not aware that its offices were in the building.

US forces also bombed Al-Jazeera’s offices in Baghdad, killing a well-known correspondent. Washington later called the incident “a grave mistake” and apologized.

At the same time, senior US officials agreed to be interviewed frequently by Al-Jazeera in the run-up to the attack on Iraq to explain their positions to the station’s huge audience in the Arab world.

Project Censored recognizes ‘news that didn’t make the news’

By Shawn Gaynor

The Primary Objective of Project Censored is to educate people about the role of independent journalism in a democratic society and to expose them to the news that didn’t make the news, and why.

Oct. 1 (AGR)— This week the Project Censored awards ceremony is taking place in San Rafael, CA, and will highlight once again the prevalence of censorship and misinformation in the US news media by awarding authors of important stories that are absent from the mainstream media.

The news stories were selected by over 200 student researchers and faculty, and represent the most important under-covered news stories of the year. The nation’s longest running media project, Project Censored is housed at Sonoma State University. It has highlighted underreported news for over 25 years.

According to Project Censored’s mission, “The essential issue raised by the project is the failure of the mass media to provide the people with all the information they need to make informed decisions concerning their own lives and in the voting booth.”

Trish Boreta of Project Censored named the power of advertisers as a major factor contributing to censored news stories. “Advertisers don’t want to advertise in publications if the content doesn’t ‘please’ them. Right now, many ads are coming from corporations that make a profit from war, and they don’t want to look bad. In addition, many corporations that have major interests in [the] defense [industry] also own communications systems and media outlets.” She stressed, “We need to impress upon the public the need for independent sources, so that they will support investigative journalism and publications like the AGR.”

This year the Asheville Global Report received recognition for four stories. AGR Editor Eamon Martin will be attending the awards ceremony, after receiving seventh place for his news compilation, “US invasion proposal shocks the Netherlands.”

“I think our awards are a sad, stunning testament to the state of the country’s public access to vital information,” Martin says. “The only reason these pretty provocative stories got any attention is because a small group of dishwashers, waitresses, and laborers without health insurance thought it was important and took the time to do it.”

Editor Kendra Sarvadi was also recognized among the top twenty-five stories of the year for her compilation titled, “Documentary implicates US troops in Taliban prisoner deaths.”

The AGR, which was also recognized for stories on “Plan Puebla-Panama and the FTAA,” and “Convicted corporations receive perks instead of punishment” shared the honor of the most stories recognized this year with The Nation and Global Outlook.

At this year’s ceremony, former member of Congress Cynthia McKinney will give a keynote address on the “Importance of Freedom of Information,” along with speakers such as Norman Solomon and Michael Parenti.

Project Censored’s picks for the 25 Most Censored News Stories of the Year for 2002-2003 are now available in their annual yearbook, Censored 2004, from Seven Stories Press. Censored 2004 is a comprehensive analysis of the dangers of media consolidation in the United States and a full review of the most important issues involving freedom of information for the American public. This year’s book includes an introduction by Amy Goodman, co-host of the national radio news show Democracy Now!.

This year’s 25 most censored stories are:

1. The neoconservative plan for global dominance (David Armstrong, Harper’s Magazine, October 2002; Robert Dreyfuss, Mother Jones, March 2003; John Pilger, www<\d>.pilger<\d>.carlton< \d>.com, Dec. 12, 2002.)

2. Homeland security threatens civil liberties (“The second Patriot Act is a mirror image of powers that Julius Caesar and Adolf Hitler gave themselves,” Alex Jones wrote on www.rense.com. Frank Morales, Global Outlook, Winter 2003; Alex Jones, www<\d>.rense<\d>.com, Feb. 11, 2003, and Global Outlook, Vol. 4; Charles Lewis and Adam Mayle, Center for Public Integrity, Feb. 7, 2003. )

3. U.S. illegally removes pages from Iraq U.N. report (Michael I. Niman, ArtVoice, Jan. 1, 2003, and The Humanist, March/April 2003.)

4. Rumsfeld’s plan to provoke terrorists (Chris Floyd, CounterPunch, Nov. 1, 2002.)

5. The effort to make unions disappear (Lee Sustar, Z Magazine, Sept. 20, 2002; David Bacon, War Times, October-November 2002; Anne-Marie Cusac, The Progressive, February 2003; Robert L. Borosage, The American Prospect, March 2003.)

6. Closing access to information technology (Arthur Stamoulis, Dollars and Sense, September 2002.)

7. Treaty busting by the United States (Marylia Kelly and Nicole Deller, Connections, June 2002; John B. Anderson, The Nation, April 2002; Eamon Martin, Ashville Global Report, June 20- 26, 2002; John Valleau, Global Outlook, Summer 2002.)

8. U.S. and British forces continue use of depleted uranium weapons despite massive evidence of negative health effects (Dan Kaplevitz, Hustler, June 2003; Reese Erlich, Children of War, March 2003.)

9. In Afghanistan: poverty, women’s rights, and civil disruption worse than ever (Ahmed Rashid, The Nation, Oct. 14, 2002; Pranjal Tiwari, Left Turn, February/March 2003; Jan Goodwin, The Nation, April 29, 2002; Scott Carrier, with a photo essay by Chien-Min Chung, Mother Jones, July/August 2002.)

10. Africa faces new threat of colonialism (Michelle Robidoux, Left Turn, July/August 2002; Asad Ismi, Briarpatch, vol. 32, no. 1 (excerpted from the CCPA Monitor, October 2002); Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, New Internationalist, January/February 2003.)

11. US implicated in Taliban massacre (Kendra Sarvadi, Asheville Global Report; Adam Porter, In These Times.)

12. Bush administration behind failed military coup in Venezuela (Duncan Campbell and Greg Palast, The London Guardian; Joe Taglieri, Global Outlook; Karen Talbot, People’s Weekly World;Jon Beasley-Murray, NACLA Report on the Americas.)

13. Corporate personhood challenged (Thom Hartmann, CommonDreams and Impact Press; Thom Hartmann, Wild Matters; Jim Hightower, The Hightower Lowdown.)

14. Unwanted refugees a global problem (Daniel Swift, In These Times; Charles Bowden, Mother Jones; Bill Frelick, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.)

15. US military’s war on the earth (Bob Feldman, Dollars and Sense; David S. Mann and Glenn Milner, Washington Free Press; John Passacantando, Wild Matters.)

16. Plan Puebla-Panama and the FTAA (Miguel Pickard, CorpWatch.org; Timi Gerson, Public Citizen’s Trade Watch; Tom Hansen and Jason Wallach, Labornotes; Rachel Coen, Asheville Global Report and Extra!)

17. Clear Channel monopoly draws criticism (Jeff Perlstein, MediaFile.)

18. Charter forest proposal threatens access to public lands (Kristin Robison, Earth First! Journal; Jon Margolis, American Prospect.)

19. US dollar vs. the euro: another reason for the invasion of Iraq (William Clark, The Sierra Times; Cóilín Nunan, Feasta; William Greider, The Nation.)

20. Pentagon increases private military contracts (Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune; Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch.org; Antony Barnett, London Observer.)

21. Third-world austerity policies: coming soon to a city near you (Greg Palast, Harper’s Magazine; Michael Parenti, Covert Action Quarterly; Gabriella Bocagrande, Texas Observer.)

22. Welfare reform up for reauthorization but still no safety net (Barbara Ehrenreich and Frances Fox Piven, Mother Jones; Neil deMause, In These Times; Dave Hage, The American Prospect; Heather Boushey, Dollars and Sense.)

23. Argentina crisis sparks cooperative growth (Lisa Garrigues, Yes! Magazine; Leif Utne, Utne Magazine.)

24. US aid to Israel fuels repressive occupation in Palestine (John Steinbach, Covert Action Quarterly; Matt Bowles, Left Turn; Bob Wing, War Times.)

25. Convicted corporations receive perks instead of punishment (Emad Mekay, Asheville Global Report; Ken Silverstein, Mother Jones.)