Iraq government forced to suspend broadcast restrictions

13 Apr 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized

Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi government to suspend its media regulations. The regulations, which impose tight restrictions on the country’s broadcast media, have been enforced by the Communication and Media Commission (CMC) in order to silence the broadcasters who encourage ‘incitement of sectarianism.’ “These restrictions open the door to politically motivated discrimination in the regulation and licensing of broadcasters” claims Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. The organisation claims the government can prohibit speeches and that incite the violence but the vague definition endangers the international norms of freedom of expression. The new restrictive Iraqi broadcast rules have been compared to the Afghan government’s ban on the filming and live broadcasting of militant attacks, approved on March 2010.

WikiLeaks posts video showing journalists killed in Iraq

06 Apr 10 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost

On 5 April, Wikileaks, the website that publishes sensitive leaked material, released a video showing a 2007 US military airstrike that killed about a dozen Iraqis in eastern Baghdad. Among the dead were a 22-year-old Reuters photographer, Namir Noor-Eldeen, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40. The Pentagon had previously blocked an attempt by Reuters to obtain the video through a freedom of information request. Wikileaks director Julian Assange said his organisation had to break through military encryption to view the footage.

US releases Iraqi photographer

11 Feb 10 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized

An Iraqi photographer who was arrested in his Mahmudiya home by the US military on 1 September 2008 has been released. Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed was held for 17 months without charge at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad, despite a ruling by Iraq’s central criminal court on 30 November 2008 that he should be released. The US prison authorities claimed the journalist represented a security threat but refused to make specific allegations.