Lean Left

« Previous | Next »

What Democracy?
Posted by Kevin

The CPA just shut down and anti-American newspaper in Baghdad. People were not amused:

American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.

Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Advertisement

“No, no, America!” and “Where is democracy now?” screamed protesters who hoisted banners and shook clenched fists in a hastily organized rally against the closing of the newspaper, Al Hawza, a radical Shiite weekly.

The rally drew hundreds and then thousands by nightfall in central Baghdad, where masses of angry Shiite men squared off against a line of American soldiers who rushed to seal off the area.

What’s worse, the CPA appears to have violated its own laws in order to close the paper:

Many newspapers and television stations have sprouted in Iraq since the fall of the Hussein government. But under a law passed by the occupying authorities in June, a news media organization must be licensed, and that license can be revoked if the organization publishes or broadcasts material that incites violence or civil disorder or “advocates alterations to Iraq’s borders by violent means.”

But the letter outlining the reasons for taking action against Al Hawza did not cite any material that directly advocated violence. Several Iraqi journalists said that meant there was no basis to shut Al Hawza down.

In doing so, they have turned a radical paper into a symbol of broad-based American contempt for Iraqis:

But the letter outlining the reasons for taking action against Al Hawza did not cite any material that directly advocated violence. Several Iraqi journalists said that meant there was no basis to shut Al Hawza down.

“That paper might have been anti-American, but it should be free to express its opinion,” said Kamal Abdul Karim, night editor of the daily Azzaman.

Omar Jassem, a freelance reporter, said he thought that democracy meant many viewpoints and many newspapers. “I guess this is the Bush edition of democracy,” he said.

Tom Rosenstiel, vice chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, said there was a basic irony in Americans’ practicing censorship in Iraq.

“If you’re trying to promote democracy in a country that has never had it, you have to lead by example,” Mr. Rosenstiel said. “I’m not in Iraq. But it’s hard for me to see how the suppression of information, even false information, is going to help our cause.”

This move has forced legitimate journalists to support it, despite its record of dishonesty.

The people running the CPA apparently don’t have a clue how to operate in Iraq. If they were not prepared to counter the half truths of an anti-American paper with something other than the tactics of Saddam Hussein, then they should never have been appointed in the first place. This is a terrible failure on the part of Bremer. It erodes Iraqi faith in America’s intentions and gives legitimacy to the Baghdad equivalent of a newspaper tabloid. Short of shooting the editors, I don’t see how this could have been handled any worse.

March 29th, 2004 Politics | one comment