| Iraqi journalists discuss free media’s impact on democracy BY MATT GETTY Though Iraq’s progress toward peace and democracy remains a bloody uphill struggle, the country’s free press will help it get there, said four senior Iraqi print and broadcast journalists who were on campus last Thursday for a “Media and Democracy in Iraq” forum sponsored by the SIS International Communication program. The journalists discussed such challenges as the death threats they have received and openly criticized the Iraqi government and occupation forces. Yet, as they answered questions from students and faculty through a translator, they continually stressed their belief that Iraqi journalism stands as a shining example of freedom’s power. “A new page in the life of Iraq has begun,” said the managing editor of one of the country’s leading Shiite newspapers. Before the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, he explained, the country got its news from three newspapers and two TV and radio stations, all of which were owned and run by the government. Now, Iraq has more than 100 newspapers and 25 TV and radio stations, none of which are owned or run by the government. “This has created an atmosphere of real freedom,” he said. “This picture of democracy is more widespread than any other pictures that you see about Iraq.” But that freedom doesn’t come without risks, he and the other panelists noted. Because democracy and open dialogue are new concepts for the country, explained the editor in chief of one of Iraq’s independent newspapers, various political parties or religious sects overreact to material aiming a critical eye their way. The result has been the murder of 70 Iraqi reporters in the last three years, he explained. Censorship is no longer the problem, he said, explaining that he has never been asked by the Iraqi government or occupation forces to change anything in his newspaper. Instead, he faces a steady stream of death threats from the various religious or political factions he criticizes in his editorials. “I receive so many death threats,” he said, “that on days when I don’t receive one, I ask myself, ‘What’s going on?’ There must be something wrong.” Given the media’s new role in the country, such threats, the editor in chief said, are a badge of honor. “I am proud, for instance, to have received a death threat from al Qaeda; it means I have angered al Qaeda,” he said, characterizing his work as a “search for truth” and a public service. “We consider ourselves to be among the most courageous journalists in the world . . . The liberation has put the burden of a mission on us.” According to the two broadcast journalists on the panel, the media’s public service role comes in direct response to a growing hunger for information among Iraqis. Troubled by the lack of basic services and outbursts of violence, the public craves stories that expose government corruption, economic problems, and security lapses, explained the director general for an Iraqi satellite TV station. “Iraqis are now like a drowning man hanging onto a stick,” he said. “We are looking for solutions. We are looking for a savior.” For some, said the head of news programs for another Iraqi TV station and the panel’s only female journalist, the media has become that savior. “Iraqis would like the media to solve their problems,” she said. “They want the media to become a tool that can put pressure on government officials to find solutions.” Panelists agreed that the media is answering that call not only by acting as a watchdog on the developing Iraqi government, but also by easing tensions among the country’s various religious, ethnic, and political factions. With more than 100 newspapers, explained the Shiite newspaper’s managing editor, each political party and religious sect “can voice its opinion.” Such empowerment, he argued, will help to quell anger that has developed among factions who were silenced for decades. More importantly, pointed out the editor in chief of the independent newspaper, the media is also beginning to unite those separate factions into a coherent unified voice that offers clear hope for a unified Iraq. “My newspaper,” he explained, “is written by Shiites, Kurds, Christians, and that reflects positively on the newspaper. That is why we’re succeeding. Readers don’t see us as a Sunni newspaper or as a Shiite newspaper. They see us as an Iraqi newspaper.” Though each of the journalists willingly exposes themselves to peril through their daily work in Iraq, American Weekly has opted to withhold their names from this article to prevent further endangering them or their families. |
