Posted Tuesday, November 25, 2003 Index to the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech Alphabetical index (text)
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SO MUCH FOR "BRINGING FREE SPEECH TO IRAQ"   Contributor Kevin Walsh comments: THIS following article, attributed to the Associated Press, appeared on page A12 of the Tuesday, November 25, 2003 edition of the Arizona Republic.    This is what happens to any newspaper or television station that dares report anything going on in Iraq which the Pentagon does not want the public to know.    Every soldier and political office holder in the USA takes an oath to uphold and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and part of this Constitution is freedom of the press.    So much for that oath. Apparently the rationale is that quoting Saddam Hussein is the same thing as inciting revolt, rather than mere objective reporting. ARAB TELEVISION STATION IS KICKED OUT OF IRAQ Baghdad--The U.S. appointed government raided the offices of Al-Arabiya television on Monday, banned its broadcasts from Iraq and threatened to imprison its journalists Media groups said the action called into question the future of a free press in the country. Al-Arabiya said it would not fight the ban and would report on Iraq from its headquarters in Dubai. The Iraqi Governing Council banned the station, one of the Arab world's largest, from working in Iraq for broadcasting an audiotape a week ago of a voice it said belonged to Saddam Hussein. The council did not say how long the ban would be in effect. In Washington, Richard Boucher, a spokesman for the State Department, defended the ban. He said the aim was to try "to avoid a situation where these media are used as a channel for incitement, for inflamatory statements, and for statements and actions that harm the security of the people who live and work in Baghdad, including Iraqi citizens themselves." In Baghdad, Jalal Talabani, the current council president, said, "Al-Arabiya incites murder because it's calling for killings through the voice of Saddam Hussein." Shortly after Talabani finished his news conference, about 20 Iraqi police officers raided Al-Arabiya's offices in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood, making lists of equipment to be seized if it continued to report from Baghdad, said station correspondent Ali al-Khatib, reporting live from the Iraqi capital.

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