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G.I.'s Padlock Baghdad Paper Accused of Lies by J Gettleman 
New York Times, March 29, 2004 G.I.'s Padlock Baghdad Paper Accused of Lies By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN AGHDAD, Iraq, March 28 - American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence. Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. "No, no, America!" and "Where is democracy now?" screamed protesters who hoisted banners and shook clenched fists in a hastily organized rally against the closing of the newspaper, Al Hawza, a radical Shiite weekly. The rally drew hundreds and then thousands by nightfall in central Baghdad, where masses of angry Shiite men squared off against a line of American soldiers who rushed to seal off the area. The closing of the newspaper illustrated the quandary Americans faced in trying to strike a balance between their two main goals - encouraging democracy while maintaining stability. But as the days wind down to the June 30 target date for handing sovereignty back to the Iraqi people, security seems increasingly elusive. On Sunday, the Iraqi public works minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the northern city of Mosul, and two foreign workers were shot to death nearby in front of a power plant. Many Iraqis said closing down a popular newspaper at such a crucial time would not curtail anti-occupation feelings but only inflame them. "When you repress the repressed, they only get stronger," said Hamid al-Bayati, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a prominent Shiite political party. "Punishing this newspaper will only increase the passion for those who speak out against the Americans." The American authorities said Al Hawza could reopen in 60 days. The paper's editors, however, said they had been put out of business. "We have been evicted from our offices, and we have no jobs," Saadoon Mohsen Thamad, a news editor, said as he stared at a large padlock hanging from the front gate. "How are we going to continue?" Among Iraqi journalists, Al Hawza was known for printing wild rumors, especially anti-American ones. A broadsheet of about eight pages, the paper is considered a mouthpiece for Moktada al-Sadr, a fiery young Shiite cleric and one of the most outspoken critics of the Americans. The letter ordering the paper closed, signed by L. Paul Bremer III, the top administrator in Iraq, cited what the American authorities called several examples of false reports in Al Hawza, including a February dispatch that said the cause of an explosion that killed more than 50 Iraqi police recruits was not a car bomb, as occupation officials had said, but an American missile. Many newspapers and television stations have sprouted in Iraq since the fall of the Hussein government. But under a law passed by the occupying authorities in June, a news media organization must be licensed, and that license can be revoked if the organization publishes or broadcasts material that incites violence or civil disorder or "advocates alterations to Iraq's borders by violent means." But the letter outlining the reasons for taking action against Al Hawza did not cite any material that directly advocated violence. Several Iraqi journalists said that meant there was no basis to shut Al Hawza down. "That paper might have been anti-American, but it should be free to express its opinion," said Kamal Abdul Karim, night editor of the daily Azzaman. Omar Jassem, a freelance reporter, said he thought that democracy meant many viewpoints and many newspapers. "I guess this is the Bush edition of democracy," he said. Tom Rosenstiel, vice chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, said there was a basic irony in Americans' practicing censorship in Iraq. "If you're trying to promote democracy in a country that has never had it, you have to lead by example," Mr. Rosenstiel said. "I'm not in Iraq. But it's hard for me to see how the suppression of information, even false information, is going to help our cause." Many Iraqi journalists said they feared that closing Al Hawza would only increase the support for Mr. Sadr, the 31-year-old son of a revered Shiite cleric who was assassinated in 1999 by hit men working for Mr. Hussein. In the prelude to the June 30 transfer of power, Mr. Sadr has been increasingly abrasive, issuing statements denouncing Americans and any Iraqis who work with them. Thousands of his followers can be summoned to the streets at the snap of a finger, as demonstrated Sunday. Unlike Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the influential Shiite cleric who has also criticized the occupation but not in militant terms, Mr. Sadr has threatened to form his own militia. The American authorities said that before they decided to close Mr. Sadr's newspaper, they weighed the risks of further provoking him. "But we basically concluded that we couldn't afford to wait for another issue to hit the streets," said Al Elsadr, the media liaison for the occupation government. "The false information in that paper was hurting stability. It was stirring up a lot of hate. It was making people think we were out to get them." Mr. Elsadr said that incitement of violence could come in many forms and that it did not have to be direct to be considered a violation of the administrative law. "If people actually believed that coalition forces were slaughtering civilians," he said, "it could be real dangerous. That's incitement." Mr. Elsadr said the occupation authorities had invited the paper's editors to discuss with them what had been printed, but it was unclear if the paper would be able to appeal the closing order. In July, the American authorities permanently closed down another newspaper for similar reasons, provoking similar demonstrations. An Arabic television network was suspended from broadcasting in Iraq for 30 days after coverage that was considered irresponsible. The protests outside the Hawza offices on Sunday faded with the day's light. After the brief but tense standoff with American forces, Mr. Sadr's followers rolled up their flags and climbed back into their buses. No injuries or property damage were reported. Earlier on Sunday, the public works minister, Nasreen Barwari, was attacked by gunmen while her convoy was speeding through Mosul, an increasingly dangerous city. A spokeswoman for the occupation authorities said that a driver and a guard had been killed, but that the minister had not been hurt. Two other people were wounded. "It was a close call," the occupation spokeswoman said. Not far away, gunmen shot to death two foreign security staff members outside an East Mosul power plant. The two guards, one from Britain and the other from Canada, were killed while trying to protect a team of engineers working for General Electric. Later on Sunday, and also in Mosul, American soldiers got into a shootout with a band of armed men. Two Americans were wounded, and four Iraqis were killed. |