(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a resolution on Iraq passed by members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004. The organisations that have signed on to the resolution are listed below: INTER AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTING INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE WORLD […]
(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a resolution on Iraq passed by members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004. The organisations that have signed on to the resolution are listed below:
INTER AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTING
INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE
WORLD ASSOCIATION OF NEWSPAPERS
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM COMMITTEE
MEDIA IN IRAQ
The Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004, expressed deep concern about the safety of news personnel in Iraq. Since the start of 2004 alone, 12 Iraqi journalists have been killed in the line of duty. Several were killed in incidents involving firing by US forces.
The Coordinating Committee calls upon US and allied forces to conduct full investigations of all such incidents and to make the results public.
Furthermore, there must be an immediate dialogue between the military authorities and the local and foreign news media to minimize the risks of any more such tragic incidents.
There have been a number of other worrisome developments in relations between the Coalition Provisional Authority and the news media in Iraq.
We understand that the continuing violence in the country creates highly legitimate concern for the military authorities.
The creation of some 200 newspapers and a number of broadcasting outlets since the end of the former regime has been a healthy and positive manifestation of the Iraqi population’s thirst for varied, independent news and information sources and for free comment and opinion.
Yet, the extremely violent reaction of an important segment of the population to the CPA’s closure at the end of March of the 50,000-circulation weekly Al Hawza demonstrated that bans on news media outlets — no matter how unwelcome or inconvenient their news and views may be to the authorities — is an unwise and counterproductive course of action.
The authorities maintained that the newspaper incited violence by reporting rumors that an explosion killing a number of Iraqi police cadets was not by a terrorist car bomb but by a US helicopter-launched rocket and also by publishing a commentary comparing CPA administrator Paul Bremer to deposed President Saddam Hussein. Staffers of the newspaper said they had merely reported existence of the rumor, without suggesting it had factual basis, and that they should be free to express their opinion of the CPA chief.
The closure of the newspaper, presented as a temporary 60-day ban, was not isolated. There have been repeated measures against journalists in Iraq of the foreign Arab-language satellite news channels Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, which are both generally reported to have far wider local viewership and credibility than the CPA-created television channel.
The CPA has set dubious examples for the new Iraqi authorities on dealing with independent press outlets. The provisional Iraqi governing council has not hesitated to follow those examples by issuing banning orders of its own on news media.
As always, the proper answer to bad speech is more speech, not the silencing of inconvenient voices. CPA leaders should not impose restrictions in Iraq that they know would not be tolerated in the established democracies in their own home countries.
