Iraq's Ministry of Communications threatens to sue newspaper

Iraqpress ^ | 12/02/03 | Iraqpress

[Pikamax]

Ministry threatens to sue newspaper

Baghdad, Iraq Press, December 2, 2003 – The Ministry of Communications has threatened to sue Azzaman, Iraq’s most influential newspaper, over alleged inaccurate reporting.

In an angry letter, which Azzaman published on Monday, the ministry denied reports by the newspaper that members of the council were tainted and that anyone of them was ever involved in corruption.

It threatened to sue Azzaman if such “unfounded allegations” were repeated in the future.

Reports of bribery and embezzlement in the granting of new contracts in Iraq first surfaced in the international press.

AFP, the French news agency, and the Financial Times, had both carried stories of an inquiry commission looking into reports about corruption particularly in contracts related to the establishment of a mobile telephone network in the country

The London-based Middle East Economic Survey, in a report on Monday, also said that the launching of an Iraqi mobile telephone network will be delayed because the Pentagon is currently investigating the possibility of corruption accompanying the deals.

Azzaman responded by saying it was merely carrying reports by other sources and wondered whether the ministry would pursue foreign newspapers and journals that first published those reports.

Azzaman, edited by veteran writer and politician Saad Bazzaz, prints about 60,000 copies in Baghdad alone.

It has a separate edition for Basra.

It also publishes a regional edition in Bahrain and prints a widely distributed international edition in London.

The ousted regime of Saddam Hussein had imposed severe restrictions on the media. Iraq had only four dailies which only published stories that supported the regime’s policies.

Today there are scores of newspapers in Baghdad and the Iraqis have free access to satellite television and the Internet.