(RSF/IFEX) – On 29 November 2002, RSF criticised the Iraqi government for its systematic restrictions on foreign journalists’ right to work in Iraq, accompanied by often crude attempts at manipulation. In a letter to the Iraqi authorities, the organisation noted that the government claims to allow the foreign press to work freely in Iraq and […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 29 November 2002, RSF criticised the Iraqi government for its systematic restrictions on foreign journalists’ right to work in Iraq, accompanied by often crude attempts at manipulation.
In a letter to the Iraqi authorities, the organisation noted that the government claims to allow the foreign press to work freely in Iraq and wants journalists to accompany United Nations weapons inspectors as a guarantee of objectivity. But the recent unfortunate experience of a French television crew belied the promises of transparency, RSF said.
French journalists Erick Bonnier and Céline Hue, of the television news agency Tony Comiti Productions, were denied the right to shoot footage while in Iraq from 9 to 26 November. Despite having all the appropriate authorisations in their possession, they were unable to produce the programme for which they had travelled to the country.
Tony Comiti Productions editor-in-chief Cyril Drouhet said the company “did it the official way,” obtaining press visas and all of the authorisations required by the Iraqi bureaucracy. Nonetheless, the journalists’ attempts to report on the “Oil Road” turned into a farce, and after two weeks of “bullying, censorship and ludicrous pieces of pantomime by the official guide, who changed every day,” the two journalists returned home without having shot any footage, Drouhet said.
In Baghdad, the police even barred the journalists from filming garbage on the pretext that “[it was] not good for the government’s image.” Drouhet added that in the enormous oil refineries in the northern city of Kirkuk, the only person who was authorised to give an interview was an old man, who appeared out of nowhere while the real workers were kept out of sight.
