Iraqi journalists come to Athens, discuss freedom of the press

Six Iraqi journalists came to the University of Georgia campus Monday, and spoke of the current state of affairs of freedom of the press in their war-torn country.

While there is still far from a truly free press in Iraq, the visiting Iraqi media members presented a theme of optimism for the future through their state translator.

“To a certain degree there is a level of freedom of media in Iraq right now,” said Dier Shwan, a media manager and the governor of the Iraqi city Kirkuk, just north of Baghdad.

“But not all of the media outlets are as free, because the majority of them are connected one way or another to political parties or militia.”

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Web site, at least 88 Iraqi journalists have been slain since the Iraqi War began in 2003, with not a single conviction.

The frequency of these murders has reportedly slowed, with just nine in 2008 after 27 in 2007, but CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney still calls Iraq "the most dangerous country for journalists by far."

“After 2003 there was a big change in freedom of the press,” said Dr. Asifa Al-Fanherawy, a female correspondent for Radio Free Iraq in Baghdad.

“So we have quite a good space of freedom inside the official government. But it’s hard to reach the standard that we like as journalists.”

While the work is still being done in Iraq, the journalists said, the American-based Iraqi channel Al-Hora, is making in-roads that they can only hope to in the future.

“The irony is that the Al-Hora channel is one of the most watched,” said Al-Fanherawy. “They are quite in tune with the Iraqi streets and what is going on. So they do have a broad audience. The Iraqi viewers trust it to a certain level with its content. You have to understand that all those that are working there are Iraqis, and they’re good quality journalists as a fact.”

“You have to understand that what they have as capabilities is far beyond what any Iraqi channel has,” said Samar Al-Ali, a female television reporter for Al-Fayhaa TV.

“Their ability to reach the news and report the news is way beyond anything we have. But that does not mean we don’t have the same efforts on some of our local channels.”

Here's a video from the CPJ's Web site honoring fallen journalists. Warning: Parts are pretty graphic and disturbing:

CPJ Killed Journalists in 2008 from Dave Mayers on Vimeo.