Aug 22, 2005

A new, independent nonprofit that plans to help improve Iraqi news media recently formed in southern Iraq. Six Iraqi journalists have formed the Afaq Media Forum (AMF), according to an August 16 announcement posted on the Middle East NGOs Gateway.

The Basra-based group says it has a variety of goals, including: building a stronger, independent press; increasing journalists’ participation in public policy; developing a sustainable network of informed journalists; promoting international action to defend press freedom; helping younger journalists improve their skills; increasing women’s participation in the media; and speaking on behalf of fellow Iraqi journalists.

The AMF hopes to achieve its ambitious list of goals through training programs, affordable training manuals, and partnerships with various news organizations, among other means.

The six founding journalists are forum’s trustees, and they plan to meet once a year to set AMF policy. For more information, contact AMF secretary Adil Hameed, telephone 426275 or 624617, mobile 07801125030.

Middle East NGOs Gateway

Having sent their stories over the internet to Germany, producers in Berlin then put them together to make up the half hour Election Radio program. This is then sent back to Iraq, also as an MP3 file over the internet, to local partner stations from where it is finally broadcast.

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Text of editorial analysis by Amani Soliman of BBC Monitoring Media Services on 6 May 2005

The media in Syria have experienced only minor changes since the Ba'th Party came to power in 1963.

In 2000, after Bashar al-Asad became president following the death of his father Hafiz al-Asad, a brief period of increased press and political freedom ensued. But efforts to consolidate reform stalled. A crackdown began in early 2001, and during the following year the government jailed several pro-democracy activists.

The media sector in Syria is now strictly controlled, with most publications and media outlets owned by the state. In the face of growing international political pressure on Syria to open up to the rest of the world, there are cautious steps in that direction.

The Syrian government hoped to change its image in the eyes of the rest of the world with the decision by the Regional Command of the ruling Ba'th Party to issue a licence to the "Syrian Public Relations Association" to become the first private undertaking whose goal is to help "create a Syrian image" at home and abroad.

Syria came 155th in the annual Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) worldwide index of press freedom announced in October 2004. President Bashar al-Asad has been put on the organization's list of 32 "predators of press freedom" around the world.

Media centre in London

In January 2005, Syria opened a media centre in London. Yahya al-Aridi, head of the centre, noted that its objective was to "present the Syrian message to the British media and other international and Arab media in the British arena".

In an interview with the London-based Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah said: "The reason for choosing London is the importance of the British capital in international politics and in the media as well. Here, there is a large assembly of Arab journalists and a large number of Arab communities. The Syrian Media Centre in London is the first of its kind, but it will not be the only one. We hope to be able to open other centres in important world capitals like London."

Asked about the main issue on which the Syrian media will focus abroad, Dakhlallah replied: "Improving the image of the Arabs in general and Syria in particular among the British public and explaining the justice of the Arab cause."

Opening up

Other efforts have included steps to open bureaus for the Syrian News Agency, SANA, in Moscow, Washington and Brussels after studying "the positive and negative aspects of the Media Centre in London". These offices will launch "public relations campaigns, away from the Syrian embassies and the official establishment".

The Public Relations and Foreign Media Department at the Information Ministry, Dr Nizar Mayhub and 10 others submitted an application to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour for a licence to establish the Syrian Public Relations Association. The objectives of the association include "adopting and encouraging research, studies and activities that help in promoting and applying the concept of public relations".

Steps to support private activity include the Social Affairs and Labour Ministry issuing a licence to the Press Correspondents Association in Syria to facilitate the work of foreign organizations to carry out local civil projects.

First private radio

In 2002 the government set out conditions for licensing private, commercial FM radio stations. But it ruled that the stations could not broadcast news or political content. In May 2003 the government gave initial approval to license four private commercial FM radio stations.

At the end of January 2005 the first private radio station, Al-Madina FM, launched test transmissions in the city of Aleppo, in the north of Syria. The official launch took place at the start of March 2005, and eventually the station plans to cover all of Syria's governorates with live 24-hour transmissions. The station will also transmit via satellite to the rest of the world, as well as through its web site.

Al-Madina FM does not broadcast news; its output includes a mix of entertainment, cultural and health programmes. The station produce its own programmes and commercials "using modern technology and trained Syrian resources through its five studios".

New non-Ba'thist Head of Syrian TV

Journalist Diyana Jabbur, who is not a member of the ruling Ba'th Party in Syria, was appointed director of state-run Syrian Television in April 2005. According to Jabbur, this post had usually been assigned to Ba'thists.

Media corporations merge

Syria has a restrictive law on printed media. However, the Syrian government has endorsed draft legislation to merge the Tishrin, Al-Wihdah and Syrian Arab publishing and distribution corporations into a single entity, the Ugarit Press, Printing, Publishing and Distribution Corporation. (Ugarit is the name of an ancient capital in Syria.)

The new corporation, which reports to the information minister, is tasked with issuing various newspapers, magazines and periodicals. It will also carry out printing work for both the public and private sectors, conduct research and strategic studies and distribute local, Arab and foreign newspapers and magazines inside Syria and abroad.

Opposition radio abroad

Radio Free Syria, launched in June 2004, is a media outlet for the Syrian opposition abroad which is operated by the US-based opposition Reform Party of Syria (RPS). The station's operators have invited opposition movements in Syria to participate in the radio's programmes.

In a statement sent to the Elaph web site, Ali al-Haj Husayn, the official spokesman of the RPS, said: "We are in contact with several political movements, civic institutions and cultural organizations belonging to Syrian nationalities and ethnic groups. They will be able to air their special programmes on Radio Free Syria gratis."

Al-Haj Husayn added: "The door to participation is open to independents, human rights activists and civic society activists of all sectors of Syrian society, in the homeland and abroad".

Media freedom - "give and take"

Despite these efforts, however, in the eyes of the world, Syria is still regarded as one of the most restrictive regimes in the world.

The RSF 2005 annual report's section on Syria, published on 3 May 2005 (but compiled in December 2004), states:

"Diplomatically-isolated Syria keeps tight control of all news. In 2004, the authorities gave some ground and took some back, alternating harsh repression with a few slight signs of opening up. Dissidents have been encouraged by the changes in neighbouring Iraq and are increasingly pressing for political liberalization.

"It was risky interpreting the significance of the October [2004] appointment of Mahdi Dakhlallah, former editor of the official Ba'th Party paper Al-Ba'th, as information minister. Very little changed in the media scene during the year...

"The print media, as well as radio and TV (which is a state monopoly), is obliged to echo the government line. A law passed in early 2002 allowed the setting up of private radio stations, but they were only authorized to broadcast music and advertising. The only critical newspaper, Al-Dumari, launched in February 2001, was forced to close two years later after constant bureaucratic harassment. Resident foreign reporters in Syria are also under surveillance and have great difficulty getting their annual accreditation renewed. The pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera has never been allowed to open a permanent office. Many internet web sites are censored in Syria."...

"Syrians have little confidence in their own media and are keen fans of satellite TV news stations such as Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, LBC (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation) and the US station Al-Hurra to find out what is happening in their own country..."

US-funded broadcasters' correspondents banned

In 2005, according to the Al-Jazeera English web site, Syria banned the correspondent of US-funded Arabic-language television Al-Hurra and Radio Sawa for lacking accreditation. "Ammar Musara reportedly had accreditation," a Syrian human rights lawyer said, "but it was withdrawn because of his coverage of an opposition sit-in in Damascus."

In response, a Syrian Information Ministry official said on 15 March 2005: "In Syria, we open the doors to the media, particular foreigners, to allow them to transmit a real image of what is happening in the country. We have no hostility towards the Al-Hurra chain or Radio Sawa, but their correspondent does not have the proper accreditation."

Human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said Musara's coverage of an opposition demonstration on 10 March in front of the capital's Palace of Justice to call for the scrapping of Syria's emergency law and of special courts had irked the authorities.

Al-Hurra was launched in 2003 to improve the image of the United States in the Middle East and to counter the influence of the Arabic satellite channels, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. Radio Sawa began broadcasting in 2002. Both are funded by the US Congress.

“The Media in Iraq – A New Future,” see www.ncmc-iraq.org

BAGHDAD -- It's not easy being an actress in Iraq.

"Security, car bombs ... lack of power," says Mais Gumer, 30, ticking off issues she faces as she readied herself this week for a play rehearsal. The rehearsal was canceled after a power outage.

Despite the hardships of working through the violence in Iraq, the television market has blossomed since the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein, Gumer says.

Under Saddam there were only three local channels, excluding channels in the Kurdish region in the north. The three channels were run or controlled by the government. Satellite television was outlawed.

Today, there are a dozen stations, most privately controlled. Nearly every household has a satellite dish, drawing programs from throughout the world.

Iraqis are hungry for entertainment. "People now are looking for someone who can help them forget negative reality and spend a few hours of entertainment," Gumer says.

A surprise hit: the airing of confessions from suspected insurgents who are captured. Many suspects look disheveled as they explain why they were arrested.

Sitcoms and political satires, unheard of under Saddam, are also popular. "Now you have more freedom to express yourself and tackle different issues unlike before the war," Gumer says.

Highbrow art has taken a hit. Most theaters, except for Baghdad's National Theater, have closed for lack of security.

But because of the booming TV market, actors and actresses have more work and larger salaries. Before the war, Gumer received about $200 for a 30-episode series, she says. Today, she averages $800 for a similar series.

By Mona Mahmoud

***

New programs a hit with viewers

The number of local Iraqi channels and programs has expanded since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. Locally produced sitcoms, political satires and even reality shows are proving popular. A sampling of shows:

Al-Iraqiya network

Terrorists in the Hands of Justice. A big hit: Insurgent suspects confess on television. Some testify they were paid for attacks on Iraqi or U.S. forces.

Good Morning, Iraq. A morning variety show with a format similar to a morning show on the U.S. networks.

The Exceptional. A game show that tests contestants on their knowledge of Iraqi culture and history.

Al-Sharqiya network

Why are you Afraid, Lady? Focuses on women's rights and challenges that affect women.

This Home is your Home: The Bridge of Tears and Joy. A family wins a lottery each week for a month's worth of groceries.

Reported by Melanie Eversley and Yasmine Bahrani, USA TODAY. Sources: Al-Sharqiya; Al-Iraqiya; Iraq Culture Ministry; USA TODAY research

Free speech, measured in watts
An Iraqi television station, protected by Stryker troops, takes on insurgents - and finds time for 'Mosul Idol.'

MATT MISTEREK, The News Tribune

MOSUL, Iraq - Just a few nights after mortars pounded some nearby fields, the fortresslike compound of the Iraqi Media Network enjoys a peaceful Wednesday sunset.

A Fort Lewis soldier boots a soccer ball with an Iraqi soldier and three Kurdish kitchen workers. Two stray dogs settle their litters of puppies in for the night. And several men from Charlie Company rest on their cots until their next shift in the Stryker vehicles parked out front.

The emblem of the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment is the gimlet - a bitted tool that's tougher than stone - which helps explain the battalion's motto, "Bore, brother, bore."

After pulling 48-hour detail guarding these gates, however, they might consider changing it to "Bored, brother, bored."

Locally known as Al Iraqiya, the TV network that transmits four hours a day might be the best hope for a free press in northern Iraq and the source of one of the most popular shows in the country.

But the soldiers from Washington's second Stryker brigade mostly tune out the TV and radio technicians down the hall.

"We don't talk to them and they don't talk to us," Sgt. John Garrison said after emerging from two hours inside an armored Stryker carrier.

Still, there's a sense of accomplishment in helping keep the network on the air.

"It's not so much that we take pride in what they do, but we take pride in what we do protecting them," said the 36-year-old New Yorker. "Because if Ali Baba gets a lot of bad information out to the public, then it's not good for anybody."

The soldiers have been here since January, when a string of mortar attacks led commanders to assign a rotating security platoon. To some it might look like a war-zone defense of First Amendment values, but the brigade is primarily just protecting one of its most valuable assets - information.

It contracts with the Mosul station to produce a "Most Wanted" program, which shows the faces and rap sheets of some of the coalition's most highly sought-after enemy fighters and conspirators.

Al Iraqiya also helped disseminate information about curfews and closed streets in the days before the January elections, leading to smooth balloting in the north, according to brigade officials.

"In an insurgency, getting information out to the general public is one of the key tools of the fight, because it prevents the bad guys from moving around anonymously," said Maj. Mark Smith, information operations coordinator for the brigade.

But when it comes to Al Iraqiya's most controversial program, "Terrorism in the Grip of Justice," brigade leaders stress that the network is working independently.

The show has featured footage of bruised and spirit-broken detainees confessing to terrorism, drug abuse and other anti-social acts rivaling anything on "The Jerry Springer Show."

Human rights advocates say the confessions look coerced and might violate the Geneva Convention. The Iraq Interior Ministry has pledged to review the show.

"We have to keep our distance," said Smith, the brigade information operations coordinator, "because there are legal issues."

The Mosul studio is run by Ghazi Faisal, an animated 52-year-old Sunni Muslim who claims credit for airing the most-wanted and confessions programs when other broadcasters were too timid.

After becoming an overnight sensation in January, "Terrorism in the Grip of Justice" is now broadcast nationally out of the main network studio in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

Faisal sits at the desk in his second-floor office, alternately smoking cigarettes and chewing gum, across from two televisions that show 24-hour programming out of Baghdad. From 4 to 8 p.m. each day, Mosul viewers see local offerings put out by Faisal and his crew. The rest of the day, they feed bits of news to the Baghdad studio, which runs a continuous ticker at the bottom of the screen.

An AK-47 rifle leans against the wall behind Faisal's desk, and he has two handguns in his drawer. He said he has yet to use them for anything but practice, but risks are ever-present.

"We took a big chance to produce these programs," Faisal said. "People were scared about voting. They said there would be zero percent turnout because of the threat of terrorism. The terrorists put ideas in people's heads that they are jihadists, that they were for the cause, and we set out to show that they were just gangs, they were ruthless, they were not for the people."

He gets worked up, using hand gestures and breaking in and out of English and Arabic: "What kind of jihad is this? I would like to meet with (Abu Musab) al-Zarqawi and tell him, '...What kind of belief is this?' "

The Mosul station went on the air after Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003. It started doing reporting on the looting and other repercussions of the regime's collapse.

Faisal had a price on his head as the insurgency heated up last year, and Iraqi police protection ended in November, when precincts around Mosul emptied under the cloud of death threats. He moved into the studio and got bodyguards for his children.

Faisal kept broadcasting and preparing for his most ambitious production to date, a collection of confessions by unmasked accused insurgents that now airs daily. He says he has secret police contacts who invite him to send crews to film the interrogations.

He talks about the program with obvious pride, and about the men who are paraded before the camera with obvious contempt.

New York Times Magazine writer Peter Maas has seen several episodes and spent time with police commandos in Baghdad who are responsible for some of the confessions. He called the show "one of the most effective psychological operations of the war." But he also suggested that like any good propaganda, it oversimplifies the insurgency as a band of nuts and craven criminals.

Stryker leaders admire Faisal and his chief engineer, Haiman Omari, for standing strong against terrorists who would shut them down.

"Their lives have been in danger, their families have been in danger and every once in awhile the (insurgents) mortar the . . . place," Smith said. "They are a couple of good muldoons."

And despite any reservations the brigade might have about the televised confessions, Smith said this about Faisal: "He knows his audience."

Likewise, Faisal appreciates the brigade's leaders and the Tacoma-area soldiers who guard his gates around the clock.

"I can't emphasize enough what they have done for me. They make me feel like I am one of them, and they encourage me to do more and more," he said.

Last weekend, he broadcast a town hall-style meeting featuring families of terror victims as they confronted a local police chief. Next up is "Mosul Idol," a talent show loosely modeled on the hit series "American Idol." But Faisal gets most excited when talking about plans to portray the rich heritage of Mosul, his birthplace and home to more than 2 million people of many ethnicities.

"I have so many ideas in the my head, but I don't have enough air time each day."

Meanwhile, the network also broadcasts FM Ninevah throughout Mosul. The AM signal is even stronger, reaching across the Syrian border.

Though the mortar hits and other threats have tapered off since the elections, the risks continue. Omari, the station engineer, said he was headed out to visit a transmitter site recently when he discovered the brake lines of his pickup truck had been cut. A female newsreader was abducted in the city and never heard from again.

But Faisal and Omari are determined to keep the cameras rolling.

"If I didn't do my job and that man over there didn't do his job," Omari said, pointing around the studio, "then who would do it? This is the tax for the good of our city, and we must pay it."

- - -

Matt Misterek

Cameras on a Roll in Iraq
Free of Hussein, the TV and film industry is blossoming and testing boundaries. Viewers, mostly housebound, welcome the daring fare.

Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD - Iraqi director Akram Kamel is racing against the sun to finish shooting a Baghdad street scene for his television miniseries.

Daylight is the only lighting he has. When night falls, actors and crew scramble home to beat curfew and escape the criminals, kidnappers and skittish police that roam the capital's streets.

"Quiet everybody! Stand by," shouts Kamel, his eyes locked on a video-monitor framing two actors seated on a restaurant patio. The characters begin to profess their love, in whispers, when two low-flying U.S. military helicopters roar overhead, drowning out their lines. "Cut," the director barks. The actress rolls her eyes.

The scene resumes, but this time a mosque loudspeaker starts transmitting the afternoon prayers, muffling the dialogue. Minutes later, Baghdad is plunged into another power blackout. Neighborhood generators rumble to life. Kamel surrenders to the cacophony.

"This country is hopeless," he fumes, running his fingers through thinning gray hair.

Filming on Baghdad's streets unwittingly produces some form of cinema verite, and directors such as Kamel are confronting the challenges as they try to revive Iraq's battered entertainment industry.

After decades of government censorship and a two-year U.S. occupation, actors, filmmakers and television producers are embracing new artistic freedoms to tell stories about Iraqis -- before and after Saddam Hussein's overthrow -- for an increasingly housebound audience.

A dozen new private TV channels are pumping out soap operas, sitcoms, reality shows and dramas, with a distinctly Iraqi flavor. For the first time, Iraqi television is tackling issues of social injustice, government corruption and, on occasion, life under Hussein.

The nation's first postwar feature-length film is "Underexposure," which focuses on a lost generation of young artists coping with the U.S. occupation. It is now debuting at international film festivals.

"Departure," a groundbreaking television serial, which debuted in April, chronicles a gangster family that thrives after the fall of Baghdad by peddling stolen antiquities. Think "Sopranos" with an Iraqi twist. A character on the show lands in jail days before the U.S. invasion after getting drunk and insulting Hussein. It marks the first time that an Iraqi entertainment program has negatively depicted life under the dictator.

"This show expresses what's inside us," said Mothana Ahmed, 40, a Baghdad grocery store owner who has been watching the drama unfold each day. "We all know about the crimes of Saddam Hussein, but to see our lives portrayed in an entertainment program is both thrilling and horrifying."

Perhaps the biggest TV hit is "Caricature," an irreverent "Saturday Night Live"-style sketch comedy show that tackles topics from electricity outages to kidnappings to lazy government officials. In one skit, an unemployed government worker who lost his job after the war curses former U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer III because now his life has been reduced to taking his ailing father-in-law to the bathroom.

Another chronicles a family's eternal wait in a gas-station line; their children mature into adults and the father's beard grows to his chest. In another skit, a homely elementary school teacher is flooded with marriage proposals after her government salary jumps from $3 to $200 a month.

The entertainment renaissance is a key cultural benchmark for the nation, experts say.

"Cinema documents a society's experience. It documents the life of the people, both our aspirations and our suffering," said Sabah Mehdi Musawi, dean of Baghdad University's film school.

The new crop of locally made movies and TV shows not only offers a much-needed escape for Iraqis, but can also help them better understand their reality.

"Seeing something on television can bring it closer to the viewer," said Alaa Dahan, head of Al Sharqiyah, the privately owned satellite channel that airs "Departure" and "Caricature."

TV viewers say they're just happy to have a reason to laugh again.

Adnan Dabagh, 60, is a die-hard "Caricature" fan who warns his friends and family not to interrupt him during the show's daily 7 p.m. airing.

"That's sacred time for me," the retired Iraqi army officer said. "Our real life is so bad we need shows like this to poke fun at it in a way everyone can understand."

The new shows are testing Iraq's social and religious norms. Comedy shows on the government-owned Al Iraqiya network have featured drunken sheiks and dimwitted police officers, characters that would have never been allowed under the former regime.

Leaders, from President Bush to former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, are routinely mocked. Al Sharqiyah's gangster miniseries features a scene in which men and women drink and dance together, shocking behavior for Iraqi television, which has not yet shown a kiss.

Some Iraqis feel that the new shows go too far. A religious group recently protested that "Tata Academy" on Al Sumeriya was demeaning toward Iraqi culture. The program, named after tatas, the run-down Indian-made public buses, spoof amateur talent shows, mocking Iraqi singing styles and accents. The show was pulled briefly from the air, but resumed at advertisers' request.

Iraq's former minister of electricity, Ayham Samarrai, who frequently finds himself the butt of jokes by a comedy team on Al Iraqiya, complained to the station, one of the actors said.

"He advised us to take it easy on him," said Nahe Mahdi, a well-known Iraqi comedian. "Of course, that made us want to do it even more. So after that, we stepped up the pressure."

Before the invasion, Iraq's film and television industry had been in the doldrums. Production had peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s, when the state-owned Babel Film Co. churned out patriotic epics about Iraq's supposed military prowess and historical dramas about Hashemite kings admired by Hussein. The dictator's son, Uday, controlled the main television station, which had to submit scripts and films to government monitors before they aired.

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, production ground to a halt under the United Nations embargo. Imports of camera equipment and film-developing chemicals were banned because inspectors feared that they might be used for spying or for making chemical weapons. Iraqi television became a wasteland of reruns from Egypt and other Arab countries.

The U.S.-led invasion in 2003 dealt the final blow. Baghdad University's film school watched its cinema house burn down after U.S. planes attacked the campus radio station. Looters took what survived the fire, leaving behind only a couple of dusty, hand-cranked editing machines too big to steal.

"Most of our archives, the history of Iraqi film, went up in flames," said Musawi, the dean, standing before several stacks of rusting round tins that are what's left of the collection. The school owns a single Sony video camera, which is kept locked in a closet most of the time because no one can figure out how to share it among 200 students.

After the war, sales of satellite dishes -- which were previously illegal -- exploded and Iraqis for the first time had access to programming from across the globe, from Hollywood blockbusters to Italian pornography.

"At first, people were so eager to see the outside world," said Dahan of Al Sharqiyah, the satellite channel which now only airs Iraqi-produced programming. "A year later they were filled up, and now they want to see something local."

After the fall of Baghdad, filmmaker Oday Rasheed raced to the Film Ministry to retrieve a movie that censors had deemed too radical. He found burning buildings and some looters hawking expired Kodak 35-millimeter film.

He bought 80 cans and began shooting a movie about a filmmaker and other artists wandering the streets of Baghdad, searching for meaning amid the U.S. occupation.

He persuaded Eastman Kodak Co. to develop the footage for free. The Babel Film Co., which remains shuttered with no budget, lent the young director cameras and other equipment.

He called the film "Underexposure" to reflect the outdated film stock and his generation's confusion and isolation before and after the war.

"We're living underexposed lives," Rasheed said.

"We're caught in between. It's easy to move in and out now. But it's not easy to build something new."

The film has been shown at festivals in Denmark, China and Germany, but so far he's been unable to show it to Iraqis because most cinemas remain closed due to security concerns.

In addition, Iraqi filmmakers share a concern of Hollywood's lesser known producers: They lack the money to develop and distribute movies. The new Iraqi government is saddled with other challenges, and private investment is unlikely given the dim prospects that Iraqis will return to cinemas soon.

"Money. It's all about money," said Heider Minathar, an actor-turned-director who is trying to raise $150,000 for an epic about a Hussein-like dictator.

A few TV channels are beginning to earn a profit, executives say, though advertising sales in Iraq have been spotty. "Tata Academy" is one of the money-makers. The controversial show was bought for $18,000 by a satellite channel, which in turn earned $5 million from ads, said Kamel, who produced the show.

Kamel says he'll drive a harder bargain for his next show, a miniseries underway about twin boys who are reunited after they were separated when one parent fled Hussein's regime, leaving the other behind.

So far, Kamel and others are discovering that there are limits to their freedom. Mentioning Hussein's name still is largely taboo on television. Most shows are set in postwar Iraq and make only passing reference to the old regime.

The recent "Departure" serial was the first to depict life before the U.S. invasion, but it starts only 10 days before the war and refers to Hussein as "the leader."

"Many people are not ready to look back yet," Dahan said. "We're not there yet."

Kamel said he cut a direct reference to Hussein from a script he recently agreed to film.

"Forget about Saddam," he said. "He's gone."

Instead of viewing it from the "commanding heights" (but the miniscule eyeballs-share in Iraq and the U.S.) of U.S.-Iraqi government TV, Mr. Smith should have studied Ted Turner's CNN-as-disruptor lesson of 20 years ago, and advocate for dozens of U.S.-subsidized, blog-like, private Iraqi TV channel alternatives to Al-Jazeera. The Iraqi and Arab viewers would then prune the enlarged playing field, retain the best "alternative to Al-Jazeera" channel that advocates the enlarge-the-pie, U.S.-Iraq win-win message, and make it an attractive alternative content source for our national networks.

Ray Miles
Dallas

---

In regard to Mr. Smith's outrageous statements about Al-Jazeera: In the first instance, it is a documented fact that the recording of the downing of the chopper Mr. Smith cites was posted on a Web site, not obtained exclusively by Al-Jazeera. It is from such Web sites that most media outlets often obtain video by Iraqi insurgents. Further, Al-Jazeera, as with the other networks, refrained from airing the image of the survivor being cruelly assassinated. In fact, we never have aired images depicting the killing of civilian hostages in Iraq. This fact is something that could easily be ascertained if one has the penchant to be objective.

Al-Jazeera is a firm believer in the independence of the media, and has paid a hefty price trying to uphold its core editorial value of the right of the people to be informed. Our values are based on comprehensive, balanced and objective coverage. To charge that there is a perceived "relationship" between internationally respected and widely followed broadcasters and the perpetrators of terrorist activities is outrageous and defamatory. The wholly unsubstantiated claim that employees of Al-Jazeera may have had prior knowledge of terrorist attacks has been proven baseless by a U.S. government investigation.

Alarmingly, the author is suggesting a regime of censorship of media at a time when the U.S. never tires of proudly proclaiming its position as the champion in defending liberties and freedoms world-wide.

J.A. Ballout
Chief of Media Relations
Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel
Washington

---

Mr. Smith suggests Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera is working in coordination with terrorists in Iraq on several fronts. These serious charges are unsubstantiated. Among his gravest accusations is the oft-repeated line by U.S. military officials that the station's reporters have had "advance knowledge" of attacks on coalition forces in Iraq. We are aware of no case in which U.S. forces have provided evidence to support this claim against Al-Jazeera or any other news outlet. Nor does Mr. Smith back up his unequivocal assertion that on "numerous occasions" Al-Jazeera "would pre-position a crew at the event site and wait for the attack, record it and rush it on air." Journalists detained for alleged "advance knowledge" of attacks were released later without charge.

The public declarations of U.S. officials and media pundits, not only against Al-Jazeera and other Arab broadcasters but against Western news organizations that employ Iraqis, send a disturbing message to U.S. soldiers that Arab reporters are the enemy. It may have an effect on the ground: Several Arab reporters have been detained -- and released -- by U.S. troops and, in some cases, they have alleged they were mistreated in custody.

Mr. Smith and U.S. officials have an obligation to the public to substantiate such serious claims that could endanger journalists working in an already hostile setting in Iraq.

Joel Campagna
Senior Program Coordinator
Middle East and North Africa
Committee to Protect Journalists
New York

Yemeni media situation
By Olivia Allison

Despite the March 23 presidential pardon of newspaper editor Abdul-Karim Al-Khaiwani, Yemeni journalists say the amnesty is a mixed blessing, as it did not remove KhaiwaAn ni’s charges. Furthermore, journalists said they are still under attack, as the Ministry of Information is reportedly drafting a new media law.

Many press freedom groups and diplomats have pressured Yemen's government to remove some of its 1990 media law's harsher restriction, including provisions for imprisoning journalists.

Journalists said told the English-language newspaper The Yemen Observer they were confused about the pardon, pointing out that although ministers, a parliamentary report and President Ali Abdullah Saleh have called for the abolition of prison sentences for journalists, nothing has changed. Journalists also said 2004 was a black year for the press, and they fear the situation will deteriorate with a new media law, although the Ministry of Information has not yet released the text of the draft law.

At the end of February, journalists claimed they faced increased pressure from the government, according to The Yemen Observer. "Never before has press freedom in Yemen been so threatened," a March 5 article stated, charging that in February, "as many as 16 journalists were summoned to face a flurry of lawsuits filed against them."

Despite calls to decrease journalist imprisonment, journalists said they expect the worst from the new draft, pointing to the numerous arrests, detentions and lawsuits against journalists. "The new law will open the gates and allow laws that multiply penalties against journalists," former YJS Abdul-Bari Haher said at the roundtable. For this reason, the YJS leadership is drafting its own law, which it claims will be the best in the region.

The Minister of Information Hussein Dhaifallah Al-Awadi told AFP that the new media law would remove provisions that allow for jail sentences of up to a year for journalists criticizing the head of state, but that is only one of several provisions allowing journalist imprisonment.

Yemen's media law, “Law No. 25 of 1990 for Press and Publications,” regulates only the print media and provides no provisions for decentralization of the broadcast media. Yemen has no privately owned local TV or radio stations.

International organizations consider Yemen's 1990 law to be one of the best in the Middle East region, particularly on paper. A 2003 report on Middle East and Maghreb media by Internews and the Stanhope Centre said Yemen's 1990 law was considered “liberal by regional standards,” but pointed to significant content restrictions. The law prohibits, among other things, the spread of ideas “contrary to the principles of the Yemeni Revolution, prejudicial to national unity or distorting the image of the Yemeni, Arab or Islamic heritage.” Such restrictions have been the basis of several lawsuits.

The law also provides for fines and up to five years' imprisonment for the publication of “false information that threatens the public order or the public interest” and “false stories intended to damage Arab and friendly countries or their relations with Yemen.” Criticizing the president is also outlawed.

Even removal of outright prison terms in the law may not help journalists stay out of jail, said Former editor-in-chief of the English-language newspaper The Yemen Times Walid Al-Saqqaf. He said that unless a new law limits fines on journalists and newspapers, journalists could still end up in jail if they are unable to pay the fines.

In December 2003 the Ministry of Information proposed a new draft law, prompting an outcry from many media outlets and press-freedom watchdog groups. An Arab Press Freedom Watch bulletin noted two damaging articles: One article required all journalists to be members of the Syndicate in order to work legally. Another article gave 3 percent of a newspaper's advertising revenue to the Syndicate. The latter article was aimed specifically at privately owned newspapers, as political party and governmental newspapers rely less on advertising revenue. There was no change to the provisions on journalist imprisonment. Ultimately, however, the government did not adopt the new law.

An editor at the daily Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ayyam, who asked to remain anonymous, said he continues to oppose these 2003 amendments and any other similar amendments. This editor and other journalists said the government has meddled in YJS activities, so even a YJS-drafted law could be detrimental to press freedom if it gives such power to the union could prove disastrous.

“These restrictions would make [the Syndicate] a partner in my newspaper. The next thing you know, they'll be at my gates, auditing my accounts. That will never happen, even if we have to go to court,” the Al-Ayyam editor said.