In just over a month Iraqis are due to vote on their future. Parties have begun campaigning to attract voters to their positions. At the same time, the enemies of the democratic process have stepped up their campaign of murder and intimidation in order to keep Iraqis away from the ballot boxes.
In the last 18 months, in one respect Iraq has already embarked upon democracy; the system is meaningless without a representative press and media free to question, complain and criticize as and when they see fit. And this Iraq has. Iraqis have a number of daily and weekly local newspapers as well as four main local television and five local radio stations. In addition, all leading Arabic newspapers are on sale in the country and citizens with satellite dishes can pick up both Middle Eastern and international media, not the least of which are Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera.
It is pointless to debate whether or not any of these news and current affairs outlets is truly independent. What is more important is that if they are partial to one political faction or another, this is clearly understood by their audience who can, if they wish, switch to another news source that more accurately represents their point of view.
The West may huff and puff about the freedom of the press, but the realities of the North American and Western European press and media is that they are dominated by a few powerful owners. These moguls frequently cause editors to adopt a certain slant on news stories which can boost an owner’s ability to influence the establishment in his commercial favor. There is no such thing as a truly disinterested media organization. Alarm bells are nevertheless ringing at the extent to which outside forces are seeking to use intimidation and fear rather than persuasion and argument to influence journalists in Iraq to adjust their reporting of events in the country. Indeed, foreign journalists have been targeted by terrorists. It is still not clear what has become of two kidnapped French reporters but there are reports that a seized Italian journalist has been murdered by his captors. The US-led occupation forces use more subtle ways of keeping international journalists on their side. They have withdrawn media privileges from some reporters and, in extreme cases such as earlier this year, imposed a temporary ban on Al-Jazeera’s operations in Iraq.
The insurgents are far less subtle. Al-Arabiya’s office was bombed in November and now a popular international Arabic newspaper and a sister publication of Arab News, Asharq Al-Awsat, is closing its Baghdad office because it refuses, despite threats, to retract a story which upset the terrorists. Even though on the face of it, far worse things are happening in Iraq with the daily list of bombings and murders, the intimidation of journalists there should raise the greatest concerns. The future of a diverse and stable Iraq rests on the existence of a media and press that are effectively free to take any position they choose in order to represent all shades of opinion within the country. Without a free press, Iraq will never be free.
