Iraq suspends 10 TV channels for inciting violence
News network Al Jazeera and nine other channels whose licences were suspended, accused of fanning sectarian clashes
BAGHDAD: Iraq has suspended the licences of satellite news network Al Jazeera and nine other channels, accusing them of inciting violence through their coverage of recent sectarian clashes.
The Communication and Media Commission (CMC) regulator criticised their reporting of violence triggered by a security forces raid on a Sunni protest camp in Hawija on Tuesday.
None of the channels was immediately available for comment.
More than 170 people have been killed in the fighting — the worst Iraq has seen since Sunnis started staging protests in December to complain about their treatment by Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki’s government.
Language used
The watchdog said sectarian launguage used in the reports encouraged “criminal acts of revenge by attacking the security forces”. “The CMC sees in the speech and content propagated by the channels...an incitement and escalation which leans towards misleading and exaggeration more than towards objectivity,” the watchdog said in a statement published yesterday.
Most of the channels, including local stations such as “Baghdad” and “Al - Sharqiya”, are pro-Sunni and often critical of the Shi’ite -led government. Al Jazeera is based in Qatar.
The watchdog is powerless to stop the channels broadcasting, but may make it harder for their local staff to cover events.
Media rights group the Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said the CMC was biased, as some officials in the body had been appointed by the government.
“We do not deny there is an incitement to violence by some media outlets, but we consider the suspension of licenses of 10 satellite channels a blow for democracy,” the Observatory’s Executive Director Ziyad Al Ajili said.
Last June, the CMC ordered the closure of 44 media outlets including the BBC and Voice of America. It does not have the power to stop them broadcasting from overseas.
A funeral for the five soldiers was held in Baghdad yesterday with Maliki and other high-ranking officials in attendance.
Yesterday gunmen armed with silenced weapons killed one person in the north Iraqi city of Mosul, police and a doctor said.
The violence this week was the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of Shiite-majority Iraq more than four months ago.
Maliki’s resignation sought
The Sunni protestors have called for Maliki’s resignation and railed against authorities for allegedly targeViolence, including bomb attacks that have killed dozens of people at a time, has increased across Iraq this year. Provisional figures from rights group Iraq Body Count indicate about 1,365 people have been killed so far in 2013.