Iraq Suspends Al Jazeera and Other TV Channels

The decision will not banish the channels from the airwaves: as satellite channels based abroad, they are beyond the reach of the Iraqi government. But it prohibits the channels’ journalists from reporting inside Iraq.

On Sunday afternoon, the normally bustling newsroom of one of the channels, Baghdad TV, was quiet. Riad Barazanji, the general manager of the station, which has ties to the Iraqi Islamic Party and some top Sunni leaders, said he told the channel’s reporters, “This is a good chance for you to go home and see your wives and children after so much time covering the uprisings.”

The edict issued by Iraq’s media commission, which has wide authority to regulate who is allowed to practice journalism and what information is reported, covered a range of channels, many of which have aggressively covered the Sunni protest movement in Iraq. Among the channels are Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab network based in Qatar, and Sharqiya, which has a wide viewership among Iraq’s Sunnis. It is based in Dubai and is owned by Saad al-Bazzaz, a wealthy Iraqi businessman.

Only one of the channels is aligned with the Shiite community: Anwar 2, which is based in Kuwait but owned by an Iranian family. It often gives voice to conspiracy theories about the involvement of neighboring Sunni nations in Iraq’s internal affairs.

In a statement released on its Web site, Al Jazeera, which has frequently been criticized by Middle Eastern governments upset over its aggressive coverage, said: “We are astonished by this development. We cover all sides of the stories in Iraq, and have done so for many years. The fact that so many channels have been hit all at once, though, suggests this is an indiscriminate decision.”

The letter that was delivered by the media commission to the channels stated that Iraqi security force commanders had also received a copy, and it ordered them to “do what’s necessary to stop all journalism operations” of the channels. Mr. Barazanji, of Baghdad TV, said he took that as an implicit threat that his reporters would be arrested if they continued to do their jobs. The commission also ordered local cellphone companies to shut off any phone numbers registered to Baghdad TV.

In its statement, the media commission said the networks had broadcast “misinformation, hype and exaggeration” that had deepened sectarian divisions in Iraq. The statement specifically mentioned coverage last week of a raid by security forces on a Sunni protest camp in Hawija, a northern village near Kirkuk, which left nearly 50 people dead and more than 100 wounded, and set off revenge attacks against the army and the police and a call to arms by Sunni tribal leaders. Clashes between Sunni gunmen and security forces continued over the weekend.

The commission said that it had the authority to restrict news coverage it deemed was encouraging “hatred on the basis of national or ethnic or religious identities that can incite discrimination, hostility or violence.”

In a written statement, a senior American official, who insisted on not being identified, said, “Besides giving the appearance of trying to cover up security force actions and intimidate the press, this undermines confidence in the Iraqi government’s ability to govern democratically and guarantee freedom of expression.”

Many of the channels had devoted large amounts of airtime to the Sunni protest movement that began in December and last week took a violent turn that has raised the specter of a new civil war. A report last year by Sharqiya, in particular, that alleged mistreatment of Sunni women prisoners in Iraqi jails, became a rallying cry for the protesters.

The Iraqi government has sought to cast the protest movement, which is divided by many factions, as a plot by Al Qaeda or the Baath Party to overturn Shiite rule in Iraq, and the media outlets aligned with various factions have sought to control the narrative. Last week when channels like Sharqiya were showing images of the mayhem in Hawija, the state-run channel Iraqiya was broadcasting a poetry festival in Basra. On Friday, as some of the channels whose licenses have now been revoked broadcast fiery speeches from Sunni leaders in Anbar Province exhorting young men to take up arms against the government, Iraqiya was showing programs about movies and flowers. On some Fridays, it has run a documentary about crimes committed by Saddam Hussein’s government.

For now, Mr. Barazanji said, his station will continue to broadcast raw images of the protests provided by a satellite truck owned by local tribes in Sunni regions.

Yasir Ghazi contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/world/middleeast/iraq-suspends-al-jazeera-and-other-tv-channels.html?partner=rss&emc=rss