HOW HE SEES IT Newspaper reading can be deadly in Iraq
By HUSSEIN ALI
INSTITUTE FOR WAR & amp; PEACE REPORTING
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Mohammed Shakir has been selling newspapers from his stall along the banks of the Tigris River in Baghdad for 20 years.
He offered a selection of publications representing all of Iraq's political movements and parties. No more. It's simply too dangerous in this neighborhood where Sunnis constitute a majority.
Two months ago, a group of masked men stopped by his stall and ordered Shakir to stop selling papers published by Shiite groups or government officials, saying he would be killed if he didn't comply.
"They even threatened people who buy these papers in the neighborhood," he said. Shakir, who has since shut down his stand, had good reason to take the threat seriously. Two other news dealers have been killed over the last two months in Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood, a Sunni stronghold. Three others were killed earlier this year in Dora, a district south of the capital.
Multiple targets
It's not just news dealers and their customers who have been the targets of such threats. Cafes with televisions have been warned not to turn to channels broadcasting Shiite programming.
The threats and attacks come just as the news media in Iraq was beginning to flourish after years of suppression under Saddam Hussein.
State-controlled publications
Under Saddam, only state-controlled publications were available to the general public. After his regime fell, dozens of new newspapers and magazines sprang up, offering Iraqis a wide variety of views for the first time in decades. Over the past year, however, much of Iraq's media has splintered along sectarian lines. Most papers, radio and television stations are now closely affiliated with political or ethnic groups, which also provide their financing.
It's not just Sunnis who are trying to repress freedom of the press. Sadiq Abdul Hussein, 35, a teacher from the working-class Shiite district Sadr City, noted that members of the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, have prevented newsstands from selling Sunni publications in areas they control.
"The militias try to restrict the shops to selling only religious books and force the paper sellers to circulate leaflets from the Mahdi Army," he said. "The Mahdi Army also banned all papers issued by American troops."
Protection issues
Security forces say there's little they can do to protect news dealers.
"We can't even protect ourselves. How can we protect others?" asked Mohammed Rafia, a policeman in Dora.
Saif Muhsin, a 33-year-old government employee, in who lives in the Adhamiya neighborhood, is dismayed at the situation.
"I never expected that the country would reach this low point of freedom where people get killed for reading or even carrying this or that paper," he said.
X Hussein Ali is a journalist in Iraq who writes for The Institute for War & amp; Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services