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Iraqi Government Bans TV Channels Over Coverage of Protest Violence

The Iraqi government has banned 10 TV channels for covering the violence in Hawija, further raising political tensions in the country, writes Mushreq Abbas.
A view of a destroyed makeshift camp at a public square in Hawija, near Kirkuk, 170 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad April 23, 2013. Iraqi forces stormed the Sunni Muslim protest camp on Tuesday, and more than 50 people were killed in the ensuing clashes which spread beyond the town of Hawija, to other areas. Picture taken April 23, 2013.   REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS) - RTXYZEU
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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.

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