BAGHDAD, 22 January 2004 — No longer forced to stir up the propaganda stodge of Saddam Hussein’s vanquished regime, Iraq’s brash new newspapers are hungry for scandal, rumor and gossip — and for those truly sensational scoops, they are more than willing to pay.
Once limited to a handful of staid news sheets pressed to laud Iraq’s former leader, more than 140 papers have exploded to fill the post-war media vacuum, exploring the journalism spectrum from broadsheet highbrow to tabloid depths.
Appropriately for a country where war and neglect have left streets deep with grime, Iraq’s voracious gutter press has proved itself one of the most distinctive voices, dominating news stands with its bold new breed of bulletin.
Production values are low on many of these upstart publications. Fuzzy photos are culled from the Internet and hard news trails behind scrappy fulminations on Iraq’s recent history and imminent future. But competition is fierce, and the checkbooks are out to land hot headlines, preferably about Saddam and his former henchman.
“Good stories are worth good money, and we pay up to $2,000 for a great story,” said Mochaan Al-Jabouri, editor-in-chief of the Al-Itijah Al-Akhar or Opposite Direction, one of Iraq’s more polished tabloids.
With claimed weekly sales of 260,000, Jabouri’s publication can easily afford to pay for exclusives, such as how a captured Saddam was “pumped with drugs” by the US military to keep him compliant. Though rumors pad the pages of Opposite Direction, shortly to move into a bomb-damaged office in Baghdad that once housed an intelligence agency bureau, Jabouri says he employs professional journalists to check facts.
But he admits a firm editorial stance, backing Iraq’s Sunni minority, many associated with Saddam’s powerful Baath party, who he says have been maligned by US-led coalition authorities.
The tabloids are a constant source of bemusement of the coalition, which regularly trawls the press looking for anything that may help or hinder its occupation.
One US military officer who has attended weekly sessions where army intelligence review rumors spread by press and public, describes the meeting as being on the editorial board of the National Inquirer US scandal sheet.
“I was expecting Saddam Hussein to be married to Elvis by the end of the session — and having a three-headed baby, it’s unbelievable,” he said. Iraq’s interim Governing Council is already contemplating new laws to muzzle media accused of inciting racial or ethnic tensions, although the coalition favors a more laissez-faire approach.
Several council members have attacked coverage by Arab satellite channels such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, with the latter being banned from reporting in Iraq for broadcasting tapes made by Saddam while he was still a fugitive.
Not all of Iraq’s emerging media is mired in intrigue and innuendo, with some newspapers working hard to establish themselves as reliable bastions of truth and integrity.
In the spartan Baghdad offices of Azzaman, a daily broadsheet printed both in the Iraqi capital and in London, 30 journalists scribble away in smoke filled rooms, writing stories by hand to be typed-up and checked by a meticulous team of editors.
Editorial supervisor Nada Shawket says her paper, a staid but surefire blend of news, lifestyle features and sport, has a responsibility to deliver reliable facts at a time when wild rumors could wreak havoc in volatile Iraq.
“These stories can be dangerous, especially for people who are not very well educated. Maybe they believe what they read in these newspapers, and maybe they will increase the problems we are seeing at the moment,” says Shawket, a former employee of the old state-sanctioned media.
But even at Azzaman, a scoop is a scoop. Ali Al-Baythane, a grizzled news veteran, fondly recalls his best exclusive for the paper, exposing the truth behind Saddam’s oft-derided literary talents.
“Everyone said that the books Saddam wrote were actually written by someone else — I was the only one to report he actually did write them,” he said.
