"Iraq's military seeks to muzzle news groups; Media accused of promoting sectarian strife" by Rod Norland, New York Times | April 14, 2009
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi military put local journalists on notice on yesterday that their organizations could be shut down for misquoting officials, while the Iraqi government accused the news media of deliberately seeking to promote sectarian strife.
The top military spokesman in Baghdad, Major General Qassim Atta, said he was filing a lawsuit seeking to close the Baghdad offices of the newspaper Al-Hayat, one of the most prominent in the Arab world, as well as Al-Sharqiya television, a popular Iraqi satellite channel that has been a strong critic of the government....
Also see: Occupation Iraq: Government Hit Squad Killed Reporters
Atta claimed that the two media outlets falsely quoted him as reporting that the government would rearrest detainees released by the Americans, and would distribute pictures of them to military and police checkpoints.... Washington is seeking to release most of the 20,000 remaining detainees in the prisons it controls as part of the handover of authority to the Iraqis, and also to encourage reconciliation. Most of them have never been charged with a crime.
The official government newspaper, Al-Sabah, also published Atta's alleged remarks, but it was not threatened with closure. Al-Sabah's political editor, Abdul Halim Saleh, said his paper's report was based on an e-mail message it received from the Baghdad Operations Command. Atta's lawsuit seeks the closure of the offices of the two organizations for "publishing false reports," his office said.
Then you gotta shut down AmeriKa's newspapers because they are full of them every day!
Al-Hayat published a correction on its website yesterday, saying the newspaper had confused Atta's remarks with those of another, unnamed source.
"Here in Iraq there are no laws regulating journalism, and we just follow moral and ethical standards," said the director of their Baghdad office, Mushreq Abbas. "No comment," he said, when asked about the assertion that the paper had not spoken to Abbas in six months.
Al-Hayat, which is distributed throughout the Arab world and has a headquarters in London, maintains an office in Baghdad with a staff of about 25, but it is available in Baghdad only on its website. Al-Sharqiya, based in Dubai, has no office in Iraq, although it is an Iraqi channel, and uses news agencies for its reports.
There are more than 200 newspapers in Iraq. The only one so far shut down was that of the Mahdi Army, a radical Shiite group. Its closure in 2004 led to an uprising by the Mahdi Army.
But it's not political or anything!! Yeah, we brought FREE SPEECH to IRAQ!!
In 2004, the interim government in Iraq banned Al-Jazeera, the Arab world's leading satellite news channel, on grounds of sympathizing with insurgents, and successive governments have extended the ban.
The best news channel out there and our "liberated" Iraq bans it!
Other satellite television channels have had temporary bans imposed, and one Iraqi television channel, Al-Zawra, was permanently closed in 2005 after it broadcast videos of insurgent attacks on American troops.
Of course, you can televise a war crime of an invasion and its applauded here in Amerika, hoo-ah!
--more--"
Here is ONE GUY Maliki need not worry about -- for a year, anyway!
BAGHDAD - Iraq's highest court yesterday reduced the prison sentence for an Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush from three years to one, a court spokesman said.
He should be given a medal!
Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, the spokesman, said the decision was taken because the journalist had no prior criminal history. The defense appealed the original ruling to the Federal Appeals Court, citing an Iraqi law stipulating a maximum sentence of only two years for publicly insulting a visiting foreign leader. The decision was made as Barack Obama made his first official visit to Iraq as US president.
Muntadhar Zeidi, 30, was sentenced to three years in March after pleading not guilty to a charge of assaulting a foreign leader. He described his action as a "natural response to the occupation."
The journalist's act during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, where the former US president is reviled for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
And BEYOND, jewsmedia!! Come on, tell the truth!
Defense attorneys have long argued that Zeidi's act was an expression of freedom and not a crime, and his lawyer said yesterday he should be freed immediately. "We think al-Zeidi does not deserve to be imprisoned even for one day," Zeidi's chief defense attorney, Diaa al-Saadi, told the Associated Press. "What he has done falls in the category of freedom of expression, and he was trying to express his antioccupation feelings."
I think he did well!
Another Zeidi attorney, Yahya al-Ittabi, however, welcomed the court's decision, saying it did not bow to government pressure and reflected "the independence and the integrity of the Iraqi judiciary system."
Except the guy was beaten and tortured, but.... at least it wasn't Saddam's guys, right? American puppets and stooges are better.
But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has had little sympathy for the journalist, saying the incident was more than just an insult. He described it as an assault on a visiting head of state.
Hard to insult an asshole!
Karim al-Shujairi, one of Zeidi's attorneys, said the appeal was filed about a week ago. Zeidi has been in Iraqi custody since he hurled shoes at Bush during a joint news conference with Maliki in December 2008. Though Zeidi is scheduled to be released in December, Saadi said he could be free within five months with credit for good behavior. The news came as a surprise to Zeidi's family, who called it "a victory for the Iraqi people."
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Shoe-Hurling Iraqi Becomes a Folk Hero
Free Muntather al-Zaidi The 50,000 Signatures Campaign for Muntather al-Zaidi
Bush shoe-thrower 'tortured'
