|
From
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com
Iraqis Get the News
but Often Don't Believe It
August 5, 2003
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 4
- The Iraqi economy is flat on its back. But here on Karada Out, the bustling
boulevard just across the Tigris River from Saddam Hussein's palaces, business
is booming.
Specifically, the information
business. In a two-mile stretch of this thoroughfare, 53 shops are selling satellite
television receivers. Close to 100 stores have television sets on display on the
sidewalks, where multicolored boxes from Korean manufacturers are stacked high.
At one store, Abdullah
Salama, a 35-year-old manager, watched on a recent day as eight workers unloaded
3,000 satellite dishes from an orange tractor-trailer. The load should take only
a few weeks to sell, Mr. Salama said. "Some people want to see entertainment programming,"
he said, "but basically they want to see the news."
The boom is taking place
despite the on-again-off-again electricity situation in many places. Iraqis say
they are mainly watching the Arabic language networks like Al Jazeera, though
they have mixed opinions about whether they like what they see.
More than 100 newspapers
are being published. By early afternoon it is impossible to find a copy of what
by many accounts is the most credible daily paper in Baghdad: Azzaman, circulation
75,000, published by a former Saddam Hussein aide who escaped in 1992. Internet
cafes also dot the street. Baghdadis now freely surf the Internet and send e-mail
without a government official pacing behind them.
Abbas Darwish, 63, a shop
owner who sells newspapers, said, "Iraqis are very thirsty to learn what is happening
outside of Iraq."
The nascent Iraqi media
offers evidence that a free market can thrive here. Yet it has also left Iraqis
in Baghdad and in other cities overwhelmed by the choices and struggling to figure
out which news sources are believable.
One outlet that does not
appear to have won over most Iraqis is the occupying powers' own Iraqi Media Network,
a $5 million-a-month effort.
Many Iraqis complain that
the network's televised programming is dull and repetitive. The network, which
is managed by a Pentagon contractor, has been criticized by some of its own officials,
who contend that its credibility has been hurt by meddling by occupation officials
and a bare-bones budget.
Its television director,
Ahmad al-Rikaby, said he quit in protest last week over the network's limited
resources. "You cannot make television if you do not spend money," he said an
interview from London.
Don North, a television
producer who has just returned to the United States after serving as an adviser
to the network, said he grew frustrated by orders to run programs that in his
view were not sound journalism, as well as a slim budget.
"Its role was envisioned
to be an information conduit, and not just rubber-stamp flacking for the C.P.A.,"
Mr. North said, referring to the civilian authority.
In response, a senior
Iraqi Media Network official said that the network had been spending lots of money
on new equipment to ease a shortage that he said was partly due to difficulties
getting the staff to agree on what was needed. The official also acknowledged
that new programming was needed, saying the network was working to develop some
new shows quickly.
Officials say that some
form of propaganda was always part of the plan. "I would not deny that they are
in many ways a mouthpiece for what the coalition has done," including the broadcasting
of public service announcements, said Charles Heatley, a spokesman for the civilian
authority here. He said the reach of the network was demonstrated two weeks ago
when Baghdad erupted in celebratory gunfire after the network broadcast reports
that Uday and Qusay Hussein had been killed by American forces.
Iraqis are known as voracious
readers, but for 35 years hey had little access to news - except for Saddam Hussein's
version. As a result, Iraqis tend to be highly skeptical of newspapers and official
pronouncements.
"I usually don't buy
- I just like to read the headlines," said Bilal Rashid, 36, as he surveyed a
street corner newsstand. Like many Baghdadis, he prefers to spend 20 or 30 minutes
scanning the front pages instead of shelling out money to buy a newspaper.
Mr. Rashid noted that
many journalists now working for independent papers used to work for those sanctioned
by the government. "Some of them are liars," he said. "They used to work for Saddam."
The skepticism extends
to the slick Arab satellite television networks, notably Qatar-based Al Jazeera.
A common complaint from Iraqis is that Al Jazeera is too sympathetic to Mr. Hussein
and too eager to inflame Arab conflicts with the United States.
"They put benzene on
the fire," said Abdul Hussain, owner of an electronics store on Karada Out. The
media free-for-all has created some tense moments for the civilian authority,
including the publication, and subsequent retraction, of an article in one Baghdad
paper alleging that American soldiers had raped two Iraqi women.
Iraqi journalists are
also still grappling with an American edict against publishing material that incites
violence against the occupying forces, with violators facing imprisonment. One
paper has been shut down - Al Mustaqila, which advocated "Death to all spies and
those who cooperate with the U.S."
Hassan Fattah, a Berkeley-
and Columbia-educated journalist who is editor of Iraq Today, a weekly English-language
paper, expressed concern, though. "You risk self-censorship, which basically defeats
the whole purpose of a free press," he said. Some of the media skepticism is also
clearly a product of the many newspapers published by political parties and religious
groups with little effort at Western-style detachment.
Some include bizarre diatribes.
Al Thaqalain, a Shiite publication, recently maintained on its front page that
there had been an influx of AIDS-bearing Jewish prostitutes.
Mr. Fattah's newspaper
has had a rough-and-tumble entry into the Iraqi media. The day before the first
edition was published, the offices were robbed by bandits armed with Kalashnikov
rifles. Last week, two days were lost because the power generator conked out.
But the business is growing.
The latest edition brought in $9,000 in advertising revenue. It includes articles
about drug abuse, an American military raid in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood
and a tale about a bachelor who stole Saddam Hussein's bed and used it to persuade
his girlfriend to accept his marriage proposal.
Its reporters have been
forced to learn quickly, especially about how to discern credible sources of information.
"You've got to take the
word from the mouth of the horse," said Zaid Fahmi, a reporter who studied physics
in college but this week had a front-page article about residents in a Baghdad
district banding together to protect their local bank branch from looters.
Another skill Mr. Fahmi
said he has been refining is how to elicit the right information. "If you ask
a small question," he said, "you get a small answer."
ENDS
|