Liberated and Occupied Iraq

A FREEDOM HOUSE SPECIAL REPORT AUGUST 2004 LIBERATED AND OCCUPIED IRAQ NEW BEGINNINGS AND CHALLENGES FOR PRESS FREEDOM The collapse of Saddam Hussein’s repressive regime in April The year following the fall of Saddam was dangerous and 2003 sparked a historic media boom in Iraq in the months sometimes deadly for journalists and other media that followed. Hundreds of new publications and television professionals in Iraq—by the spring of 2004, nearly two and radio channels emerged in what turned out to be an dozen media professionals had been killed and scores more unparalleled media free-for-all involving a broad range of wounded in attacks. Some press casualties were the result of Iraqi and regional media forces. A massive increase in the crossfire, while others were due to directed and politically numbers of satellite dishes—banned under Saddam motivated attacks. Continued uncertainty about the CPA’s Hussein—opened Iraqis up to new sources of information. transfer of political authority back to Iraq, which occurred Access to the Internet, which had been tightly controlled on June 28, 2004, loomed as an additional challenge for press under the Hussein regime, flourished as Internet cafes sprang freedom. Even post-handover, the lack of clarity about Iraq’s up all over the country. A year after the fall of Saddam future political and legal structures raises questions about Hussein’s government, media analysts estimated that more whether the press freedoms gained since the removal of than 200 newspapers and 90 television and radio stations Saddam Hussein’s regime will endure without strong were operating in Iraq, representing an unprecedented protections, impartial regulation, and clear journalistic diversity of media in that country. However, the quality of standards. these new publications and media outlets has been uneven. BEFORE LIBERATION: SADDAM HUSSEIN’S BRUTAL In this expanded, more diverse and complex media OMINATION OF THE RESS environment, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority D P (CPA) set into motion plans to transform and regulate Iraq’s The ouster of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 ended a reign media. The CPA’s first action was to issue a decree banning of fear in which the Iraqi government maintained complete media activities aimed at inciting violence and spreading and brutal control over the media. For nearly three decades, instability. Working with its Iraqi interim governing partners, official government propaganda dominated media coverage the CPA invoked this decree a number of times, permanently in Iraq, with few openings for voices and sources of shutting down a handful of publications and temporarily information independent of the government. banning some media outlets in an attempt to balance press freedom with stability and order. U.S.-led efforts to create a Prior to the Baathist revolution in 1968, Iraq’s media had new national media network faced many setbacks in late 2003 been considered among the freest and most diverse in the and early 2004, but by March 2004 the CPA had formally issued Middle East. The Baathist regime brought with it censorship decrees setting up a new national media network and and restrictions on media. When Saddam Hussein took over establishing regulatory bodies for the media. Iraq’s presidency in 1979, he moved further to crush the few political opponents and independent media voices that The instability that continues to plague Iraq represents one remained. By the mid-1980s, the ruling Baath Party and of the greatest threats to Iraq’s newfound press freedoms. Saddam Hussein’s family had established a complete AUGUST 2004 monopoly on the media. In 1986, Iraq’s ruling broader segments of the Iraqi public. However, despite these Revolutionary Command Council issued Order Number limited pockets of press freedom, when the war began in 840, which imposed the death penalty on anyone who 2003, most Iraqis were living in a fog of disinformation criticized or insulted the president. Authorities used brute dominated by Saddam Hussein’s official propaganda. As the force to quash independent and opposition views; appalling war commenced, the Iraqi regime initiated a number of final acts, such as cutting out the tongues of journalists who desperate attempts to control the media, influence Iraqi strayed from official propaganda, were common, and opinion, and skew international coverage. Hundreds of hundreds of journalists and authors are thought to have international journalists were in Iraq to cover the war, but been killed by the regime. they remained subject to Iraqi government control and supervision. According to a report by Reporters Without Saddam Hussein’s son Uday was head of the Iraqi Journalist Borders, Iraqi authorities arrested at least 10 journalists in Union, a mandatory union for all Iraqi journalists. late March 2003 for alleged visa irregularities. Assuming this leadership position in 1992 at the early age of 27, Uday Hussein exercised complete control over all The official Iraqi media operated intermittently during television and radio stations and managed about a dozen the war, broadcasting messages favorable to Saddam newspapers, including Babel, the publication with the Hussein and seeking to cast doubt on the effectiveness of broadest distribution in Iraq. the Coalition forces’ military campaign. Perhaps the Hussein regime’s most infamous attempt to influence As Iraq’s war with Iran raged from 1980 to 1988, Iraq’s media public views on the war came from regular press conferences grew increasingly insular, and the country lost touch with held by Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Al- the information revolution starting to sweep over most Sahaf, who achieved cult status for his denials and often parts of the globe. The regime banned satellite dishes, nonsensical statements contradicting reality. Despite punishing violators with fines and up to six months in credible reporting from multiple sources that Coalition prison. The regime also jammed signals from broadcasters forces had reached Baghdad, Al-Sahaf continued to make attempting to offer alternative views and information from statements such as, “I triple guarantee you—there are no outside Iraq. American soldiers in Baghdad.” Though the Iraqi military for the most part offered limited and sporadic resistance Iraq was one of the last countries to link up to the Internet, during the war, Al-Sahaf once said, “We’re giving them a and when the Internet was finally introduced in the late real lesson today. Heavy doesn’t accurately describe the 1990s all access was controlled by the government’s server. level of casualties we have inflicted.” Al-Sahaf’s press Moreover, Iraq’s ministry of information blocked access to conferences and statements became an anachronistic many Web sites and permitted e-mail only from Iraq-based symbol of a regime that continued to try to control servers that copied messages to the government. Foreign information in its dying days. newspapers were prohibited inside Iraq. Government security services closely monitored foreign journalists and IRAQ’S MEDIA BOOM OF 2003–2004 limited their independent access to the public, obscuring the scale and scope of Saddam Hussein’s atrocities in reports to Iraq enjoyed an unprecedented media boom in the months the outside world. that followed the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003, with a spike in the number of satellite dishes, There were exceptions to the Hussein regime’s total control people with Internet access, and media outlets. Analysts of the media, particularly after the 1991 Gulf War. The estimate that more than 200 newspapers and magazines Kurdish north, which beginning in 1991 lived under the appeared in Iraq, although according to the BBC less than protection of a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone that prevented half of those publications survived the first year. Iraq also Saddam Hussein from exercising control over those had more than 90 television and radio stations a year after territories, saw a flourishing media emerge. Outside Saddam Hussein’s removal from power. broadcasters, including Radio Sawa, Radio Monte Carlo, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and Voice of These new media outlets reflected the broad array of America, began to have increasing success at reaching opinions and views that previously were either crushed or 2 AUGUST 2004 co-opted by Saddam Hussein’s government. Sunni and Shiite Iranian-sponsored media outlets have gained greater clerics, Kurdish activists, communists, democratic liberals, prominence as well. The official Islamic Republic of Iran unaffiliated satirists, and other voices not heard for decades Broadcasting Radio Channel can be heard in Baghdad, and set up new newspapers and magazines. Around the country, the Arabic language Voice of the Mujahideen (Holy local television and radio stations sprang up, with those in Fighters) of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala placing greater emphasis in Iraq (SCIRI), an Iraqi Shiite group, receives support from on religious programming. Iran. In addition, two Iranian television stations, Sahar and Al-Alam, have joined the ever- In the context of this newfound growing list of media options for freedom, two main criticisms ordinary Iraqis. emerged in the immediate Iraq enjoyed a historic media postwar period. First, several boom in the months that Entering the media critics pointed to a dearth of competition, the United States independent and objective followed the collapse of in February 2004 established a sources of information; many of Saddam Hussein’s regime, with regional satellite television the new media outlets were set station named Al-Hurra—a up by new political groups and a spike in the number of publicly funded, 24-hour parties, and their reporting was satellite dishes, Internet access, Arabic-language news and biased in favor of promoting information channel. their parties’ leaders and and media outlets. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs have achievements rather than seen the expanding press objectively reporting on events.

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