.Sectarian TV Main Source of News in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A television station flashes a headline announcing that "terrorist militias" stormed into a Sunni family home in Basra, killing a husband in front of his wife and children.
Turn the channel and another station is reporting that Shiites in a Baghdad suburb are being brutally attacked by Sunni extremists and implores security forces to rescue them.
Such is Iraq's flourishing broadcast media, where stations owned by political parties - Shiite, Sunni, Kurdish and Turkomen - dish out news with a decidedly sectarian slant. Some analysts fear the stations are deepening the sectarian divide at a time when the country instead needs to unite to curb Shiite-Sunni violence.
"I don't think it's especially helpful to have stations that need to draw distinctions between Iraqis," said Jon B. Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, who studies Arab media.
Iraq's freewheeling TV stations are a far cry from the decades of Saddam Hussein's rule, when most Iraqis could watch only two stations - one run by the regime and the other owned by his son, Odai. Back then, a satellite channel broadcast propaganda to the Arab world. Only trusted regime supporters or rich Iraqis were allowed to own satellite dishes and have access to news from the outside world.
Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, however, more than two dozen Iraqi stations have competed for viewers. They include stations aimed at Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, Turkomen, along with one owned by the government.
Many Iraqis with satellite dishes can also watch the big pan-Arab television stations such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. Alhurra, the station funded by the U.S. State Department, has a special local channel for Iraq that offers wide coverages of the country.
The most popular stations include state-run Iraqiya and Sharqiya, owned by Saad al-Bazzaz, a one-time chief of Saddam's radio and television. Al-Bazzaz fled Iraq years before Saddam's fall and returned after the regime collapsed.
Sharqiya's programming is filled with Iraqi soap operas, some newer shows and others in black and white dating back to the 1960s. The station also airs music - and like Iraqiya, its news reports are relatively neutral.
But that's not the case with many stations. The two most pointed examples are Al-Forat, owned by the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq; and Baghdad Television, operated by the main Sunni Arab party.
Both unabashedly present news aimed at promoting the interests of their own religious communities.
Women announcers on both stations adhere to Islam's strict dress code, with only their hands and faces showing. Each station highlights the suffering of its own religious community at the hands of the other.
Other stations include Al-Masar, run by the Shiite Dawa Iraq Organization; Ashour, a Christian broadcaster; Biladi of the Islamic Dawa Party; Al-Hurriya, run by President Jalal Talabani's Kurdish faction; Turkmaniya of ethnic Turkomen; and Nahrain, owned by billionaire Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris.
Stations linked to Iraq's religiously and ethnically based parties offer no apologies for their points of view.
"The Shiites have been persecuted for 1,400 years and kept from power by force and oppression, even though they are a majority," said Mohsen al-Hakim, head of public relations at Al-Forat. "Today, we are not asking for more than our rights. We are calling for our rights through democratic principle."
He insisted the station is not hostile to Sunnis, adding "there is no place for any fanatic at Al-Forat."
Baghdad Television's deputy director, Thaer Ahmed, said his station "represents the point of view of Iraqis in general, and we report the suffering of Iraqis, whoever they are."
Al-Forat's 300 employees are all Shiite except for one Sunni Kurd, al-Hakim said. Ahmed boasts that his station's 90 staffers include few Shiites without giving a number or saying what they do.
Still, the two stations are closely identified with their sectarian communities. Al-Forat's offices are located in Karradah, a mixed Shiite Christian neighborhood on the east side of the Tigris river. Baghdad Television broadcasts from predominantly Sunni west Baghdad.
Neither station can send journalists to report on events in the other sect's areas because of fear of attacks. Each depends on news agencies for such reports.
Baghdad Television's biggest scoop was the release last March of American journalist Jill Carroll, held by Sunni extremists for 82 days. The former hostage appeared on the station wearing a Muslim head scarf shortly after she was freed.
In news reports, the stations use code words for militants from the rival sect. Baghdad Television speaks of "terrorist militias," a term favored by Sunnis to describe armed Shiite groups such as the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization.
Al-Forat refers to "takfiris," meaning Sunni extremists who attack Shiite civilians. As Baghdad Television recently aired reports of attacks against Sunnis in the mostly Shiite city of Basra, the screen flashed the words: "People of Basra, be patient."
Al-Forat often airs a flim clip showing bodies lying in the street after an explosion. Words begin flashing on the screen: "They target innocent people. They target holy places. No to terrorism. They are ignorant. They are Saddamists. This is terrorism, not resistance."
Al-Hakim boasts that Al-Forat was the only station allowed to film the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in his house in Najaf during an emergency meeting following the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra last February.
"We are the stations of the grand ayatollahs," he said.
As the new government seeks to ease sectarian tensions, some officials have pondered how to regulate stations that encourage sectarian divisions - without resorting to heavy-handed state control in the style of Saddam.
Shiite cleric Kahled al-Attiyah, deputy parliament speaker, said the media should not be controlled by the state as it was under Saddam but there should be some regulations.
"The situation today is in a way chaotic," al-Attiyah said. "What we need today is to work on a media law."
MyWay
But what are the alternatives? Going back to the "sweep all the sectarian hate under the rug" mentality. I think that one of the best things coming our of the ME is that many people are saying out loud, that which they would only say under their breath. The truth is out, just read this weeks entries here.
Turn the channel and another station is reporting that Shiites in a Baghdad suburb are being brutally attacked by Sunni extremists and implores security forces to rescue them.
Such is Iraq's flourishing broadcast media, where stations owned by political parties - Shiite, Sunni, Kurdish and Turkomen - dish out news with a decidedly sectarian slant. Some analysts fear the stations are deepening the sectarian divide at a time when the country instead needs to unite to curb Shiite-Sunni violence.
"I don't think it's especially helpful to have stations that need to draw distinctions between Iraqis," said Jon B. Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, who studies Arab media.
Iraq's freewheeling TV stations are a far cry from the decades of Saddam Hussein's rule, when most Iraqis could watch only two stations - one run by the regime and the other owned by his son, Odai. Back then, a satellite channel broadcast propaganda to the Arab world. Only trusted regime supporters or rich Iraqis were allowed to own satellite dishes and have access to news from the outside world.
Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, however, more than two dozen Iraqi stations have competed for viewers. They include stations aimed at Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, Turkomen, along with one owned by the government.
Many Iraqis with satellite dishes can also watch the big pan-Arab television stations such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. Alhurra, the station funded by the U.S. State Department, has a special local channel for Iraq that offers wide coverages of the country.
The most popular stations include state-run Iraqiya and Sharqiya, owned by Saad al-Bazzaz, a one-time chief of Saddam's radio and television. Al-Bazzaz fled Iraq years before Saddam's fall and returned after the regime collapsed.
Sharqiya's programming is filled with Iraqi soap operas, some newer shows and others in black and white dating back to the 1960s. The station also airs music - and like Iraqiya, its news reports are relatively neutral.
But that's not the case with many stations. The two most pointed examples are Al-Forat, owned by the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq; and Baghdad Television, operated by the main Sunni Arab party.
Both unabashedly present news aimed at promoting the interests of their own religious communities.
Women announcers on both stations adhere to Islam's strict dress code, with only their hands and faces showing. Each station highlights the suffering of its own religious community at the hands of the other.
Other stations include Al-Masar, run by the Shiite Dawa Iraq Organization; Ashour, a Christian broadcaster; Biladi of the Islamic Dawa Party; Al-Hurriya, run by President Jalal Talabani's Kurdish faction; Turkmaniya of ethnic Turkomen; and Nahrain, owned by billionaire Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris.
Stations linked to Iraq's religiously and ethnically based parties offer no apologies for their points of view.
"The Shiites have been persecuted for 1,400 years and kept from power by force and oppression, even though they are a majority," said Mohsen al-Hakim, head of public relations at Al-Forat. "Today, we are not asking for more than our rights. We are calling for our rights through democratic principle."
He insisted the station is not hostile to Sunnis, adding "there is no place for any fanatic at Al-Forat."
Baghdad Television's deputy director, Thaer Ahmed, said his station "represents the point of view of Iraqis in general, and we report the suffering of Iraqis, whoever they are."
Al-Forat's 300 employees are all Shiite except for one Sunni Kurd, al-Hakim said. Ahmed boasts that his station's 90 staffers include few Shiites without giving a number or saying what they do.
Still, the two stations are closely identified with their sectarian communities. Al-Forat's offices are located in Karradah, a mixed Shiite Christian neighborhood on the east side of the Tigris river. Baghdad Television broadcasts from predominantly Sunni west Baghdad.
Neither station can send journalists to report on events in the other sect's areas because of fear of attacks. Each depends on news agencies for such reports.
Baghdad Television's biggest scoop was the release last March of American journalist Jill Carroll, held by Sunni extremists for 82 days. The former hostage appeared on the station wearing a Muslim head scarf shortly after she was freed.
In news reports, the stations use code words for militants from the rival sect. Baghdad Television speaks of "terrorist militias," a term favored by Sunnis to describe armed Shiite groups such as the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization.
Al-Forat refers to "takfiris," meaning Sunni extremists who attack Shiite civilians. As Baghdad Television recently aired reports of attacks against Sunnis in the mostly Shiite city of Basra, the screen flashed the words: "People of Basra, be patient."
Al-Forat often airs a flim clip showing bodies lying in the street after an explosion. Words begin flashing on the screen: "They target innocent people. They target holy places. No to terrorism. They are ignorant. They are Saddamists. This is terrorism, not resistance."
Al-Hakim boasts that Al-Forat was the only station allowed to film the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in his house in Najaf during an emergency meeting following the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra last February.
"We are the stations of the grand ayatollahs," he said.
As the new government seeks to ease sectarian tensions, some officials have pondered how to regulate stations that encourage sectarian divisions - without resorting to heavy-handed state control in the style of Saddam.
Shiite cleric Kahled al-Attiyah, deputy parliament speaker, said the media should not be controlled by the state as it was under Saddam but there should be some regulations.
"The situation today is in a way chaotic," al-Attiyah said. "What we need today is to work on a media law."
MyWay
But what are the alternatives? Going back to the "sweep all the sectarian hate under the rug" mentality. I think that one of the best things coming our of the ME is that many people are saying out loud, that which they would only say under their breath. The truth is out, just read this weeks entries here.
posted by madtom at 12:48 AM
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