Breaking the silence
I am leaving for Baghdad soon, for the first time in almost 23 years. I am not, however, going there to be a member of the “governance council” that Paul Bremer announced last week, nor will I be part of Baghdad’s municipal council, nor even the municipal council of Uruk, the small ancient town where writing was discovered 5,000 years ago, which is only 10 miles from my home. Nor am I going to fulfil a pledge I made on BBC TV back in March that I will be “swimming in the Euphrates this summer”, since Baghdad is not on the Euphrates but on the Tigris, which I have never swam in.
I am going there on a different mission this time. It is to gain support for a proposed new law and regulatory framework that would create an enabling environment for the future emergence of independent and pluralistic media in the land where I was born.
Iraq’s media have gone through a huge transformation since April 9, from the most disciplined propaganda machine, whose function was to idolise Saddam Hussein and his family, to the freest media in the world, where anyone with a bit of money, local or foreign, can start a newspaper, radio or TV station and say pretty much anything they like.
In this media chaos, and among such TV giants as the Qatari al-Jazeera, Iranian al-Alam, Saudi al-Arabiya, and the UAE’s Abu Dhabi TV, there is an absence of an Iraqi media organ whose mandate is to inform without a partisan or religious agenda.
Over the past few months, I have been part of a team of lawyers and media professionals organised by Internews, an international NGO with long experience in fostering media projects in emerging democracies, to formulate a new media law in Iraq that conforms with international standards and serves the democratic change that we all hope is going to take place there. This effort culminated in a conference held in Athens in June, where more than 75 experts from 15 countries adopted a document that attempts to bring order to the chaotic development in the media sector.
This would largely be accomplished by an Interim Media Commission (IMC), a development authority that would encourage training and professionalism as well as providing, among other things, an understanding of the responsibilities that exist for independent media. The IMC would be governed by a board with an Iraqi majority and international members of the highest professional reputations. It would emphasise the highest regard for freedom of expression and require that the media follow international covenants on human and civil rights.
The Athens conference was truly the first multilateral approach to reconstruction since the end of the war. It brought the Greeks – who held the EU presidency – the Americans and others to the endeavour in a cooperative effort. The Athens document envisaged the establishment of a public-service broadcaster that is dedicated to informing the Iraqi people and is independent of the government and of any other influence, be it political, social, or commercial.
If the framework is accepted, any Iraqis who have a gripe with the media would have a way of voicing their complaints through a press complaints council, made up of Iraqi media professionals and representatives of civil society. The Interim Media Law also contains articles dealing with defamation and incitement to violence, and empowers the IMC to monitor content to make sure it is in accordance with the principles of impartiality, fairness and balance.
The IMC would also establish, as policy, that no licences will be required for the publication of newspapers, magazines, content on the internet, or for the practice of journalism by individuals; that information, documents and decisions of the Interim Authority are open to the public, with clearly defined exceptions. It would also encourage and facilitate the establishment of private internet service providers.
Licensing will be required of broadcasters to ensure that the spectrum does not become cluttered and that the rights of all broadcasters to broadcast without interference from fellow licensees are observed and respected.
Towards these ends, the plan draws on the experience of internationally assisted efforts to create free media and a legal environment that enables and supports media enterprises while holding them to the highest professional standards.
The ultimate goal is to achieve free, independent and pluralistic Iraqi media that practise, promote and protect freedom of expression in a democratic society. It is a sacred mission and a dream of the Iraqi people that has to succeed.
· Hamid Ali Alkifaey is a writer and journalist and co-chairman of the Iraqi Media Law Project.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jul/14/mondaymediasection12
