The Iraqi government’s decision to shut down 10 Iraqi satellite channels because of how they covered protests in cities, “inciting [the people] to violence,” has raised questions over the standards that govern the media in Iraq and the official body tasked with applying those standards.
At first glance, the statement given by the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC), which regulates the usage of TV broadcast frequencies, appears to have been a government decision. The government decided that the channels it banned — including al-Jazeera, al-Sharqiyya, al-Babiliyya, Baghdad and al-Taghyir — “threatened civil peace” and “incited [the people] to violence” when they covered the Iraqi security forces storming a demonstration in Hawija (south of Kirkuk) last week. More than 200 were killed or wounded in the incident.