Iraq defends Arab TV channel ban

By Ibon Villelabeitia
Washington Post
Sep. 10, 2006

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government on Friday defended its decision to close the Baghdad bureau of Al Arabiya television for "sectarian" reporting, despite criticism from media bodies which called the ban an assault on press freedom.

"If al Qaeda wanted reporters to work for it, it could do no better than the reporters for Arabiya," Yasseen Majeed, media advisor to Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said, a day after cabinet voted to close the channel's Baghdad bureau for a month, accusing it of promoting Sunni Muslim insurgent violence.

Arabiya, a pan-Arab satellite network watched by millions in Iraq, rejected the charges. Spokesman Nasser al-Sarami said its reporters adhered to objective reporting. He said Iraq had not informed the channel which story had prompted the ban.

"We have been trying to contact the Iraqi government on their reason ... but our calls have not been answered," he said at the station's headquarters in the Gulf emirate of Dubai.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists added its voice to other international media groups in condemning the decision by a government that is sponsored by the United States and which says it is working to instil democratic values.

"The arbitrary closure of Al Arabiya's Baghdad bureau flies in the face of the Iraqi government's promise to uphold freedom of the press," Executive Director Joel Simon said.

"In a democracy, police do not walk into a television station and stop broadcasts without warning or explanation."

U.S. officials have so far declined to comment.

BIAS CHARGE

In comments made to Iraqi state television, Majeed singled out Arabiya's "provocative" coverage of a daylight rampage by gunmen in July through a Sunni Arab neighborhood in Baghdad, an event that heightened sectarian tensions in the city.

He also said Arabiya exaggerated the effects of an explosion near the Interior Ministry last month and accused it of "bias" in reporting on debates in Iraq over the autonomy of federal regions, an issue that causes fierce argument.

Iraq's now dominant Shi'ite Muslim politicians have previously accused media based in other Arab countries where Sunnis dominate, of sectarian bias against them.

Arabiya's rival, Qatar-based Al Jazeera, remains barred from Iraq after a ban imposed two years ago by the U.S.-backed interim government.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the ban on Arabiya, enforced late on Thursday when police shut down the office, was in line with Iraq's right to reinforce internal security.

"The government has long been patient with Arabiya's reporters going beyond the limit," he said, adding the channel had ignored past government warnings.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, who controlled all media, Iraqis have seen a profusion of newspapers and television.

Many of these are controlled by political factions, and Iraqi journalists, who have seen dozens of colleagues kidnapped or killed, complain of intimidation by some officials. Aside from outright threats, some journalists have been taken to court by police and other authorities for defaming them.