MORNING SESSION

09.30

Introduction: Media development in Iraq

Siayamend Othman, Iraqi Kurd, former researcher at Amnesty International and former senior vice-president at United Press International

Mr. Othman described a country in dire need of help. The conflict has been accompanied by a void of information There are no independent media outlets in Iraq. And most people have never ever seen criticism of Saddam Hussein in the press. In the north most newspapers are funded by one of the political parties.

When the state media collapsed there was a number of clandestine radio networks established, the most prominent one being Radio Tikrit. Another example is Radio Basra set up by the British. But they were all trying to win the minds and support of the old Bathist administration – not of the people. They have not been audible or very credible. Moreover, there are radio and TV stations broadcasting from neighbouring countries. On the other hand, in many places the mosques have taken over the role of the Information ministry.

The first newspaper, the Path of the People, hit the streets of Baghdad published by the Iraqi communist party. The Kurds have moved in and have taken over one of the two printing houses in Baghdad, and they have launched a newspaper, The Iraq. The other major printing house has been taken over by the Iraqi National Congress.

The Iraqi Media Network – this has been established by ORHA (Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Aid), has started radio broadcasting and has plans for developing newspapers and TV, which will be realised very soon. The network transmits on Iraqi state frequencies. It is staffed by Iraqis under US directions.

Physical infrastructure – the printing press seems to have remained functional. TV and radio studios have suffered extensive damage, but it should be possible to repair transmitters fairly quickly.  There is no regulatory structure for the distribution of frequencies. Right now it is  “free for all” – if you have enough armed men.

Independent journalists– excluding the Kurdish areas, there are practically no independent journalists in Iraq. Uday Hussein was head of the journalist union and was named journalist of the year several times. To get a job as a journalist you not only had to be a Baath party member, but also have some kind of link to the security forces. This was especially critical for Iraqi journalists working abroad. Such links were needed by the media and Ministry of Information staff more than they were for other civil servants such as, for instance, Ministry of Planning staff. This extended even to the cameramen and technical staff.

The problem is to find the right people to link up to and train. There are many good writers in Iraq but few good journalists, so there is a need for training. Moreover there is a huge need for training in media management. There are no proper training institutions, except for the north where a School of Journalism opened some years ago. To enter the School of Journalism you needed to be both a Baath party member and to have a recommendation from someone high in the party.

The largest problem in creating independent professional newspapers in Iraq is the lack of business opportunities. Currently, there are no advertising revenues. The total advertising budget for the Arab media world is less than US$ 800 million per annum. This is why almost all private Arab satellite TV stations have government backing, such as Al-Jazeera, which is backed by the government of Qatar.

Media organisations are making a loss, and this, coupled with restrictions on freedom of expression, is one of the principal impediments to the development of independent media. It is uncertain, as some predict, that this will change dramatically during the coming years. However, a positive factor may be the wealthy Iraqis living in exile who may wish to go back and invest in the future.

We need a dual strategy with public service approach. But we also need to learn from the media situation in the rest of the Arab world. Nobody watches the public Arabic television stations because they are simply not entertaining. The most watched programme, by far, in the entire Arab world is a version of Who will be a Millionaire. That programme alone attracts 20 percent of advertising money in the region. Therefore we need to be pragmatic and develop a pluralistic media picture.

In February, a working group on free media in Iraq was convened by the US State Department, but the group has not produced any reports yet.

The political situation is changing continuously in Iraq. However, there are plans for an Interim Iraqi Administration to be set up very soon. In all probability, it will be some kind of coalition government with members from different parts of the country and different political groups.

(NB. Mr Othman’s remarks in the discussion that followed his speech have been incorporated in the text above.)

10.00

Future governing arrangements in Iraq: Implications for media development.

Tony Rowlands,British Foreign Office

The civilian arm of the coalition, the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs (ORHA) headed by Jay Garner, has started functioning. There are three branches: 

• Humanitarian – headed by George Ward

• Reconstruction – headed by Loo Luc

• Civil Administration – headed by Mike Mobbs

A senior official will liase with reconstructed Iraqi ministries. This interim administration should lead to a national conference that will appoint an Interim Iraqi Administration, followed by elections after 1-2 years. The responsibility of governance should be handed over to the Iraqis as soon as possible. However, it is impossible to rush it.

As for the media situation, the country is left in a vacuum. There are almost no satellite dishes as they were illegal. Towards Freedom Radio started broadcasting on 20 March, sending an hour-long news/analysis programme broadcast from aircraft and mobile radio stations. It is free of editorials. Similarly, there is an hour-long television programme broadcast by aircraft on the former Channel 1 and 3 on Iraqi television. The UK is also sponsoring 10,000 copies of a newspaper distributed in the south. The Towards Freedom media will stop as soon as there is a substitute. It will not be moved to Baghdad. BBC has been asked to install 12 radio transmitters.

There can be no question that there is a significant need for media support and training in Iraq. Our vision should be to develop a media landscape with one public media station and a diversity of private media. However, this vision has not been formulated in writing anywhere, and there may be differences between the US and the UK on the public/private mix. A major media conference should be held in Baghdad as soon as possible, to develop this vision. There is also a need for an internet strategy, where the first step could be satellite driven internet outlets available to the public.

10.20

US perspectives: Media development in Iraq

John Langlois, Senior Media Advisor, USAID

US company Strategic Scientific Applications has been given a major grant to rebuild broadcasting assets in Iraq. Bob Reilly, former head of Voice of America, has been appointed to lead the Media Development team with ORHA, and has been jokingly called the new Iraqi Minister of Information.

USAID has given a grant to Internews work on issues related media law and regulation in Iraq. 60 Disaster Assistance Response Team people have been sent to Iraq in four different teams to assess the situation.

There is a lot of power play right now, and everybody is keeping their cards close to their chests. Although the Pentagon is in control right now, the State Department will take over soon. The problem is that institutions may be set-up that will have to be dismantled later. USAID does not play any role at the moment.

AFTERNOON
SESSION

Lessons learned and future actions:

Facilitator Andrew Puddephatt, Executive Director, Article 19

13.30

Successes and failures of the efforts to build democratic media sectors under international guidance, during the 1990s.

Mark Thompson, journalist and author of Forging War

In the context of the interventions from Cambodia to East Timor, activities to support and reform and reconstruct media had a certain place – a growing importance, one may say.

The general objective of these activities was to try and ensure that as many people as possible in these conflict zones were freely able to receive decent information. This required, in the words of an official, John Marston, who worked with information for the UN in Cambodia, setting up “a [democratic] media order that would function outside of political or personal domination” (from “Forging Peace”).

These activities might be categorised as follows:

1. Support for private and independent media.

2. Support for professionalisation, i.e. raising standards through training, institutionalising media ethics, and building journalists’ associations.

3. Support for reforming the state (or regime) media.

4. Support for drafting and adapting media laws and regulations in line with recognised international norms.

Rather than try to dissect the record in each of these categories, I will venture a few conclusions.

• Media interventions were most successful when they involved appropriate and competent local partners.

• They were less successful when they ignored local traditions (habits, conventions) of public communication.

• They were less successful when they were not cooperative and coordinated.

• Different actors can do different things. For example, NGOs cannot get media legislation adopted, while IGOs (intergovernmental organisation) or intervening governments cannot as a rule gain much credibility with the local public. These different actors can choose to harmonise their efforts, or they can choose to clash.

• The experiences of media intervention have tended to confirm that the ‘institutionalisers’ have got the better of their argument with the ‘liberalisers’, when it comes to establishing priorities for an international administration in a conflict zone. Or to quote Roland Paris: “peace-builders should delay liberalisation until they have constructed political and economic institutions that are capable of managing the societal tensions that naturally arise from the process of democratisation and marketisation.” 

• While Western governments will frequently make positive noises about ensuring freedom of expression as part of an international administration in conflict zones, they do not dedicate serious resources – political and material – to overcoming the obstacles that almost always lie in the way of securing such freedom unless they are convinced that their own pressing political objectives (usually related to ‘exit strategy’) require them to do so.

• All those millions of dollars were well spent or misspent without benefit of a strategy, or even a developed concept, either overall or segment by segment. Nor is there, at present, any forum where such strategies might be worked out.

• While they differed from each other, the interventions of the 1990s had much in common. The hesitations, overlaps, contradictions, and sheer multiplicity of actors in these interventions reflected the fact that outside powers that were capable politically and militarily of intervening, lacked a clear national interest to do so, yet could be pressured to do so by internal groups in civil society, in the name of human rights and humanitarian values.

• The disadvantages of multilateralism have been touched on. The advantages are less apparent, but equally real; they include the fact that international and intergovernmental organisations – the UN, the OSCE, the European Union – have tried to learn from their mistakes, however slowly and incompletely.

We are meeting today, however, because of a very different sort of intervention. The age of the international community ended in March this year. Regardless of the Ba’ath regime’s monstrous record on human rights, and regardless of the UK’s role, Iraq was essentially a unilateral intervention motivated by the Bush Administration’s definition of US national interests. We are, for now, in the post-multilateral age.

From the following discussion Mr Thompson stressed one important lesson from Bosnia - the lack of focus on the rule of law. As focus was on liberalisation and democratisation, lawlessness and corruption evolved and made that agenda almost impossible. He stressed that he was an institutionaliser rather than a liberaliser. He questioned whether a de-politicised media in Iraq was a priority given that in Kosovo the regional media were essential in generating a conflict.

Mr Thompson finished with four key points.Media development in Iraq needs:

• Local involvement

• A strategic approach

• Effective coordination

• The avoidance of importing models wholesale from other countries.

14.00

Exchange of experiences and ideas.

Discussion of future options for media development in Iraq. Examination of joint advocacy and cooperation between participants.

Participants initially explained their current plans for media development in post-war Iraq:

George Papagiannis, Internews Network
On the request of USAID, Internews has started to plan a proposal for the creation of a framework for media law and reform in Iraq. They have set up a working group to prepare the proposal and will hold a conference in Athens to discuss it. It is currently scheduled for the 25-27^th of May, sponsored by the Greek presidency.

Rohan Jayasekera, Index of Censorship
Index has a programme with a number of components, which was originally scheduled for Northern Iraq but now is becoming broader. Its components include training programmes and print technology. The output will be a booklet published by Iraqi journalists on the state of media and media law, followed by a meeting to be held in Baghdad.

David Talbot, Salon
Salon is in the process of forming a US committee for a free press in Iraq and is discussing various initiatives. Some journalism schools are involved and have offered to set up training programmes. Different media are involved and offer internships for Iraqi journalists. Salon would like to cooperate with other initiatives.

Milica Pesic, Media Diversity Institute
The Institute has no concrete plans at the moment, but would like to listen to the needs of the Iraqi people and to join in other, larger initiatives.

Oliver Money-Kyrle, International Federation of Journalists
The Federation is focusing more and more on the Arab world and has a number of initiatives. A few weeks before, they met the Arab Federation of Journalists – an important step. The Arab Federation is slowly taking up issues of press freedom and has engaged with IFJ in constructive dialogue. IFJ would like to get into Iraq soon, to assess the security issues and investigate the killing of journalists, with the ultimate goal of setting up an independent association of journalists.

Mark Whitehouse, IREX
IREX has no specific plans right now, but will be looking at the situation and will determine where best to offer assistance. Plans would be premature now, considering the uncertainty in terms of funding and the situation of Iraqi indigenous media and journalists. IREX do believe, however, in the need for comprehensive media development work.

Judy Yablonky, Alliance Internationale pour la Justice
The organisation hosted a training session for 28 Iraqi journalists a few years ago (8 from inside Iraq) and had planned a second follow-up training session this year. The organisation has also been putting a collection of news on Iraq from both Arabic and International news sources for the past few months, which has drawn a lot of interest. AIJ’s long-term interest is in media training and human rights issues.
It is affiliated with the International Centre for Journalists, which has been training journalists for the past 15 years and would be interested in sending out an assessment team.

Anthony Borden, Institute for War & Peace Reporting
IWPR produces the Iraqi Crisis Report. It plans to develop a rolling assessment process. The institute will make a media development webpage and email list to help coordinate the different initiatives.

Andrew Puddephatt, Article 19
Article 19’s main expertise is within media regulation and frameworks. It worked in Afghanistan to create media forums with a civil society dimension and would like to foster joint strategies and cooperation and focus on the media policy that should be in place.

15.20

Discussion

Gwyneth Henderson, from the Open Society Institute proposed a joint assessment team, and indicated that the institute may consider funding it. She was echoed by Jesper Højbjerg, International Media Support, and Siayamend Othman who stressed the need for different organisations to work together.

Duncan Furey, Institute for War & Peace Reporting, proposed some kind of work division and Oliver Money-Kyrle, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), proposed working together towards a common conference with a broad mandate. Andrew Puddephatt, Article19, proposed to give International Media Support (IMS) a role, as it is unique in having no long-term organisational interests. IMS could bring an assessment together, fill in the gaps and complete it. He stressed that when we urge governments to cooperate, when we urge the Iraqis to cooperate, we should also cooperate ourselves.

Jørgen Ringgaard, Danish School of Journalism, supported the idea of a larger meeting held in September with the Iraqi participation. Eric S Johnson, Internews Europe, proposed a webpage together with a list serve.

Siayamend Othmanstressed that a media community will develop quickly. He also mentioned that the taskforce restructuring the Ministry of Information is looking at the curriculum for the Journalists School. Jørgen Ringgaard, Danish School of Journalism, replied that his school had specific expertise in exactly that area from other countries around the world.

Anthony Borden, Institute for War & Peace Reporting, stressed the need for joint development of training packages and cooperation in the very labour-intensive work of identifying good trainers.  Jørgen Ringgaard said that combining training efforts in support of a local training institution could bring in a more long-term perspective. Organisations could then add to this training institution. A first step is to ask those involved in training to send their Terms of Reference for discussions with other organisations.

Eric S Johnson, Internews Europe, pointed out that joint assessments are valuable, but that an assessment is often the start of a project. You identify people, partners and strategies in doing an assessment, so it can be difficult to share. Andrew Puddephatt, Article19, replied that this was true, but that the Sudan experience showed how an early assessment can be of value to everybody and bring in coordination. The important thing is that it should be available to everybody and should be used by everybody. Martin Breum, IMS, said (on behalf of Mogens Schmidt, UNESCO), that UNESCO would like to be continuously informed about the follow-up to this meeting and in principle committed to the process of coordination and synchronisation of media initiatives for Iraq.

Andrew Puddephatt, Article19, pointed to five areas of agreement:

1. We have recognised the need for development of a media policy for Iraq with a strong local ownership and participation
2. We ask IMS to explore the possibilities for putting together an assessment trip to Iraq leading to an assessment process that is broad and open for everybody.
3. We will attempt to reconvene this meeting in Baghdad as part of a broader meeting on the development of a democratic and pluralistic media in Iraq with local participation. The meeting could be held in September.
4. Those involved in training should coordinate their efforts. Institute for War & Peace Reporting, Index on Censorship and Media Diversity Institute will try to help this process along.
5. We will establish a website coordination forum and a list serve to help bring us and keep us together.

16.45

Concluding remarks

Jesper Højbjerg, International Media Support, summed up.

He believed that Mark Thompson’s four lessons learned in media development were critical for the success of future initiatives in Iraq. He thanked all the participants for coming at this unique gathering. He hoped that it could result in a better coordination – that would make for effective work without overwriting the goals and initiatives of individual organisations. Hopefully, participant organisations and groups will succeed in creating a diverse and democratic media landscape in Iraq to the benefit of the Iraqi people.