By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
New York Times
05 August 2003
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 they 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."
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Citation: Richard A. Oppel Jr., "Iraqis Get the News but Often Don't Believe It," New York Times, 5 August 2003.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/05/international/worldspecial/05MEDI.html?pagewanted=print&position
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