The more things change.......

[taranaki]

The more they stay the same.


Government shuts office of station that ran Saddam tape

November 25, 2003

BY BASSEM MROUE




BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S.-appointed government raided the offices of Al-Arabiya television on Monday, banned its broadcasts from Iraq and threatened to imprison its journalists. Media groups said the action called into question the future of a free press in the country.

Al-Arabiya said it would not fight the ban and would report on Iraq from its headquarters in Dubai.

The Iraqi Governing Council banned the station, one of the Arab world's largest, from working in Iraq for broadcasting an audiotape a week ago of a voice it said belonged to Saddam Hussein. The U.S.-appointed council did not say how long the ban would be in effect.

''We have issued a warning to Al-Arabiya and we will sue,'' said Jalal Talabani, the current council president. ''Al-Arabiya incites murder because it's calling for killings through the voice of Saddam Hussein.''

Shortly after Talabani finished his news conference, about 20 Iraqi police officers raided Al-Arabiya's offices in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood, making lists of equipment to be seized if it continued to report from Baghdad, said station correspondent Ali al-Khatib, reporting live from the Iraqi capital.

Al-Khatib said the officers, who carried an order from the Governing Council, told employees they would be fined $1,000 and imprisoned for a year for each violation.

After an hour of discussions with police, Al-Arabiya's chief Baghdad editor, Wahhad Yacoub, emerged from the station and said the channel would cease broadcasting reports from Iraq until the matter is resolved.

He said the station would continue to report on Iraq from its headquarters in the city of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. But he protested the decision, saying the Saddam audiotape was received and broadcast from the station's headquarters -- not its Baghdad bureau.

Outraged Al-Arabiya correspondents accused the government of trying to stifle a free media.

''Opposing opinions should be respected,'' said correspondent Hadeer al-Rubei. ''What was practiced during Saddam's rule is being practiced now.''

New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned the government action.

''Statements from Saddam Hussein and the former Iraqi regime are inherently newsworthy, and news organizations have a right to cover them,'' said the group's Middle East program coordinator, Joel Campagna.

''This is the latest in a string of heavy-handed actions by the Iraqi Governing Council and U.S. and coalition authorities toward the media that make us apprehensive about the future of press freedoms in Iraq.''

AP


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So much for the right to report news.

[YogsVR4]

I don't think that they should have been shut down. Let the news be reported as it should. I do think that the news station should use some common sense in its dealings with those news reports however.

[freakray]

Out with one dictator.....in with another....

GW must be proud.

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by YogsVR4

I don't think that they should have been shut down. Let the news be reported as it should. I do think that the news station should use some common sense in its dealings with those news reports however.

As in?

They had a bona fide news item,and they put it to air,in much the same way that most of the world's press do.
Of course the utterances of an ousted dictator on the run are newsworthy,particularly to those who lived under his regime.

It would be interesting to see a subtitled video clip of how they presented the item though.Sadly,the days of neutral journalism have long
gone.There's always a spin of some kind on every story.

[YogsVR4]

Broadcasting news is a fine thing. Slanted one way or the other is to be expected. What they did, however, was to play the tape with nothing more said then it being a tape of Saddam. (I am looking for the link where this was better described). I think its irresponsible to broadcast something as divisive as that with little comment.

Again, I do not think the tape should be pulled from the air. I also do not think people in the news agency should arrested, fined or imprisoned. I am only commenting on how the broadcast was done.

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by YogsVR4

Broadcasting news is a fine thing. Slanted one way or the other is to be expected. What they did, however, was to play the tape with nothing more said then it being a tape of Saddam. (I am looking for the link where this was better described). I think its irresponsible to broadcast something as divisive as that with little comment.

I disagree,as usual.I think that journalism should be more about showing things as ther are,without any media input.It's unlikely that any western journalist would ever be in a position to ask searching questions of Saddam,which is a pity.But then again,maybe it's for the best.Most of the show ponies of the contemporary media wouldn't know unbiased reporting if it fired on them from a grassy knoll.

[Cbass]

Originally Posted by taranaki

But then again,maybe it's for the best.Most of the show ponies of the contemporary media wouldn't know unbiased reporting if it fired on them from a grassy knoll.

Tell it like it is, Mr. T

Believe me, it's much worse on this side of pond, particularly in the US.