Press in Iraq kept in the dark

By BASIM al-SHARA, HADEEL KAMIL and DHIRGHAM MUHAMMAD ALI

BAGHDAD — A proposed law intended to protect the freedom of the press could end up being a major setback for journalists.

That’s what many reporters here say about a bill that would include tough penalties for those who attack journalists. But the same measure would also give the government the right to withhold information it deemed not “in the public interest” or if it “threatens national security.” Journalists agree that any measure that might help improve their security is badly needed. Nearly 190 media workers have been killed in Iraq since 2003, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

As the level of overall violence in the country has declined in recent months, conditions for reporters have improved as well.

No information

What has not improved, however, is the flat-out refusal of many officials to share information with journalists.

“Spokesmen at certain ministries have their favorite reporters and will only release information to them,” said one reporter who asked that his name not be used out of fear of reprisals. “If they don’t like you, they won’t take your calls.” Some officials, this reporter said, will only talk to reporters who share their ethnic background.

Other ministries have no mechanism for talking to the press.

“Questions will be answered by the minister himself,” this reporter said. “He has not given anyone else in the ministry the authority to comment.” Another reporter explained what happened when she attempted to investigate reports that some officials have used forged documents in applying for their jobs.

“I wanted to find out why there was no mechanism for checking the authenticity of the certificates,” she said. “A manager told me he had nothing to say. He could neither clarify nor confirm anything.

“I tried several times but had no luck. They shut the door in my face,” she said.

No accountability

As long as officials feel that they can ignore reporters’ questions, the public will be unable to hold them accountable, said Wathiq al-Chalabi, editor in chief of the independent newspaper al-Mowqif.

“The media are dealing with Iraqi officials, not Europeans. Democracy was imported to this country and is almost non-existent in the culture here,” he said.

“Journalists have always had a hard time because officials avoid giving details and only issue general statements,” he said. “The (proposed media) law would legitimize this culture.

“Government offices treat all journalists as dangerous,” he said.

Munshid al-Assadi, an anchor at state-run al-Iraqiya television, says there is an “urgent need” for legislation that gives Iraqi journalists better access to information.

“Officials have yet to learn how to deal with journalists in a democracy,” he said.

Most here agree that there is an urgent need for legislation overseeing the media in the country. The bill currently being considered was first introduced to the parliament in 2007.

Journalists largely support a clause in the new law mandating harsher penalties for those convicted of attacking their colleagues.

They also back a provision that would deliver government support to injured or disabled journalists and to the families of those killed on the job — although these benefits only apply to members of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate — the country’s biggest and most powerful press union, which has helped frame the new legislation.

Saad Muhsin, a spokesman for the body, which has 11,000 members, says the guarantees offered under the bill may eventually be extended to those who are not union members.

Muayyad al-Lami, the chairman of the union, defends the bill as supporting “the interests of journalists.” He says it strengthens journalists’ right to information through a clause that allows them to appeal to a court if a request is denied.

Legal limbo

Lawyers and media experts say Iraq’s journalists currently operate in legal limbo. Some worry that strict Baath-era codes could be used to prosecute journalists, though these have been largely ignored since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Others worry that regulations adopted shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003 could be used to shut down media outlets, such as when former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi banned the Arab satellite news channel al- Jazeera.

Still, a bad media law would be worse than no law at all.

“It would be better for Iraqi journalists to have no media law at all than to have one that would restrict press freedom and could prove very difficult to revise,” said Hashim Hassan, a media studies professor at Baghdad University.

X Basim al-Shara, Hadeel Kamil and Dhirgham Muhammad Ali are reporters in Iraq who write for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services