Free media needed for a democratic Iraq

BY Hamid Ali Alkifaey| IN Media Freedom | 23/04/2003

Free media needed for a democratic Iraq

Press freedom in Iraq in the last 35 years has been virtually non-existent. Those journalists who helped idolize Saddam must be removed from their positions and replaced by independent-minded journalists.

A  World Press Freedom Day feature from the World Association of Newspapers.

http://www.wan-press.info/pages/3may.html

Hamid Ali Alkifaey

Now that Saddam Hussein`s regime has been overthrown, and so much damage and so many casualties have been inflicted on the country because of his dictatorial rule, can Iraqis aspire to an open, democratic and pluralistic political life, and certainly to a different kind of media?

In a country where writing was first discovered over 5000 years ago, and where the first printed Arabic newspaper, `Azzawra`, was published 135 years ago, one would expect the media to be very sophisticated and more advanced than any other country in the world,

or at least in the Middle East.

Far from it; press freedom in Iraq in the last 35 years has been virtually non-existent. From the time when Saddam came to power in 1968 until the 1990s there were only two daily newspapers, two radio stations, and just two TV channels operating in the evening only.

There were also only a small number of profession-based magazines. All that these media did was to praise the `leader necessity`, as Saddam was often called, and show his `immense and exceptional` abilities, his `wisdom`, his `extraordinary` leadership qualities, and of course, his achievements, which, according to them, have `transformed Iraq from a backward primitive country under the previous leaders, to an advanced and modern one` under Saddam Hussein.

In the 1990s, the leader`s elder son, Uday, thought it would be `fun` to have more newspapers, magazines, and TV channels. So, he started more publications, as well as a radio and TV channel, `the Youth Radio & TV`. Uday`s media outlets were not so different from those of his father. Their main aim was also to hammer one message home:

`Saddam was a `heaven-sent` leader to Iraq, and Iraqis should feel grateful for this `god-given` gift.

Any Iraqi who didn`t show `gratitude`, did not have the right to live. No word of criticism of the leader or the regime would be tolerated. When a young journalist wrote an article in `Althawra` newspaper, the official Ba`ath party newspaper, in 1991, criticizing a series of articles written

in the same paper, he disappeared a week later, and no one has heard from him since. Dhurgham Hashim`s `crime` was that he dared to criticize a series of articles believed to have been written by Saddam Hussein personally, although they appeared under the name

of a journalist, Jabbar Muhsin, who was close to the regime.

The articles in question were critical of the Shia majority in general, and of the Marsh Arabs in particular. Saddam accused them of being of Indian origin -- which he apparently believed was the ultimate insult -- because they rebelled against his rule in 1991. The articles claimed

that the Marsh Arabs were `brought from India with buffalos by the great Arab conqueror, Muhammed Alqassim`. Of course, every one knows that the Marsh Arabs are the descendants of the Sumerians, the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia, as Iraq used to be called.

Those articles caused so much anger among the Shia majority that a well-known writer, and a former editor of the Ba`ath party newspaper,  Aziz Alsayyid Jasim, wrote a private letter to Saddam protesting about the accusations in the articles. Jasim disappeared a few days

later, and is believed to have been executed.

Another magazine editor, Dawood Alfarhan, wrote an article in his magazine, `Azzamen`, in which he called ministers `fat cats`. He was imprisoned and tortured, but he was lucky enough to come out of prison alive and go back to his old job. Out of prison, Alfarhan knew the limits, and hence, praising the `wisdom` of the great leader became the theme of his writings from that point on.

That was the state of press freedom in Iraq; no toleration of any criticism at all, and execution awaiting every one who criticized Saddam, his ministers, his officials or guards, or anything they did. Journalists could, however, sometimes criticise the `failure` of local authorities to carry out the `wise instructions and guidelines` of the president leader. This sort of `criticism` was tolerated, if one could call it criticism at all.

Now that Saddam Hussein`s regime has been overthrown, and so much damage and so many casualties have been inflicted on the country because of his dictatorial rule, Iraqis aspire to an open, democratic and pluralistic political life, and certainly to a different kind

of media.

The absence of free media helped idolize Saddam Hussein, perpetuate his brutal rule, and shake the very fabric of Iraqi society. I, like most Iraqis, do not wish to see this happen ever again in my country, and I am sure that no Iraqi would ever tolerate the type of oppression we experienced under Saddam Hussein.

To ensure that it never happens again, we need a totally free media. The ministry of information must be abolished altogether, and replaced  by a regulatory authority. All media institutions associated with the collapsed regime of Saddam Hussein must be also be abolished and  replaced by new ones that have no political colour. Those journalists

and writers who helped idolize Saddam must be removed from their positions and replaced

 by independent-minded journalists.

However, it is neither wise nor fair to put journalists, or other professionals, out of their jobs on the basis of their political allegiances, past or present, and this must not happen in a post-Saddam Iraq. No one expects Iraqi media to make this great leap forward over night, as these far-reaching reforms will take time to implement. But we need a new media law to be incorporated in the Iraqi institution as soon as possible, in order to provide journalists with

the legal protection they need to carry out their duties.  At the same time, we also need a code of ethics for journalists, in addition to the legal provisions and safeguards. We need such a code to protect people`s privacy as well as stop the media from being used

inappropriately by political or business rivals. A large section of our society is still conservative and religious; any attack on cultural or religious values or institutions may cause unnecessary tension within society.

The 35 years of Saddam`s repressive regime caused much deterioration in Iraqi political and social ethics, making it imperative for any new government to erect strong media laws to protect inDIViduals as well as politicians from defamation and personal attacks. The code

of ethics must be binding on all members of the association of  Journalists and writers and this membership should be mandatory. Any journalist who engages in any defined subversive act, for political or commercial reasons, must be held to account.

I am currently working with lawyers, media specialists, human rights campaigners and sociologists from many countries, in order to draw a  new media law for Iraq. I, as well as other colleagues in the International Conference on Free Media in Iraq, believe that a free

media in Iraq will have wide implications across the Arab world. That is why we felt it was necessary to include people from Arab countries in order to have an Arab perspective.

The experience of lawyers and media specialists who have helped reform media laws in Russia, Eastern Europe, Bosnia and Kosovo will indeed be very valuable in the case of Iraq. More journalists, media specialists, sociologists, and lawyers will join us in the International

Conference on Free Media that will be held in Athens before the end of  the spring. The recommendations of the conference will by no means  be binding on any future Iraqi government, but it will no doubt be useful  if not valuable. Let us hope that by 3 May 2004, Iraq has a new constitution, a new elected government, and a new functioning media

law in a healthy political environment.

Iraqis need to work together, and forgive each other, but they must never forget the traumatic and painful 35 years of Saddam`s rule. The lesson from this bitter experience must be learned, if it hasn`t already.

Hamid Ali Alkifaey was born in 1959 in Iraq in the town of Rumaytha, near Uruk. In 1981, due to political persecution and repression under Saddam Hussein`s regime, he fled from Iraq and emigrated to England, where he studied economics, politics and languages at a number of British universities. Throughout the 1990s he worked as an economic reporter in the London based Arabic press, as well as a translator/editor for a Middle Eastern economic research centre in London.In 1999 Hamid joined the BBC World Service as a journalist & producer. A vocal opponent of Saddam Hussein?s regime, he resigned from the BBC in March 2003 in order to be free to speak on Iraqi political matters without the constraints of impartiality that the BBC imposes on its journalists.