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With
sanctions lifted, Saddam Hussein removed from power
and Kurdistan the most secure place in Iraq, Kurdish
media have unprecedented potential to thrive.
Kurdistan is experiencing an explosion of investment
and trade, thanks to Kurdish businessmen returning
from the diaspora, Turkish and Iranian companies
eager to enter a new market and Baghdad businesses
seeking a respite from kidnappings, car bombs and
insurgent raids. Despite this seemingly favorable
media environment, however, Kurdish journalism
appears hobbled by an "old Iraq" mentality and has
been slow to capitalize on new opportunities.
Kurdistan experienced the media free-for-all now
sweeping the rest of Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War,
when the region gained autonomy from Baghdad and a
plethora of new publications burst onto the scene.
Fourteen years later, the two main Kurdish parties -
the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whose parallel
administrations each govern about half of Iraqi
Kurdish territory - dominate the broadcast and print
media. In addition, the KDP and PUK subsidize
smaller political parties and, consequently, control
their media operations as well.
The two parties publish the region's only daily
newspapers, the KDP's Khabat and the PUK's
Kurdistani New, and run vast publishing houses and
terrestrial and satellite television channels that
reach Kurds in Iraq and beyond. These outlets remain
party mouthpieces: anything printed or broadcast is
carefully checked for adherence to party interests.
Moreover, party media journalists report that in
addition to their long-standing hesitation to
criticize powerful neighbors Iran and Turkey, now
they also must take care not to publish anything
that might insult the United States, Shiite Arabs,
or nearby Kirkuk's many ethnic groups.
One editor complained that Kurdish papers always
must use the full title of Iraq's most revered
Shiite cleric, "Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani," to
avoid offending Shiites, while most of the Iraqi
press simply writes "Al-Sistani." Party media,
therefore, still trade in the safe, "red carpet"
style of journalism so prevalent in the Middle East,
a style long on platitudes and short on substance.
Iraqi Kurdistan's nearly one dozen independent
newspapers do not suffer from such editorial
timidity. They are far more inclined to tackle
sensitive social issues, such as honor killings, and
to criticize Kurdish and national government
policies. Readers turn to them for information they
know the party papers will not print. Yet, like the
party-affiliated papers, nearly all have a
circulation of fewer than 5,000 in a region with
nearly 4 million Kurdish speakers. Most also tend
toward sensationalism and often inaccurate
reporting. They have bloated editorial staffs and,
despite their nominally independent profiles, depend
on direct or indirect financial support from the
major parties and the Kurdish administrations.
An exception is Hawlati, an independent weekly based
in Sulaimaniyya. The paper, now four years old,
boasts a circulation of 15,000, the largest in
Kurdistan. Its editorial board has gone to great
lengths to maintain both editorial and financial
autonomy. Hawlati recently became the first Kurdish
paper to publish weekly several pages of news about
developments in the rest of Iraq and in other
countries, a move that has boosted its popularity.
The biggest challenge for independent media is
financial stability. The notion that a newspaper,
radio or television station can turn a good profit
is unheard of in Kurdistan. Moreover, to most Kurds,
the purpose of media is to pursue political causes,
rather than to inform the public. This mentality is
a holdover from the past when all Kurdish media were
in the service of "the revolution" - that is,
resistance to successive oppressive central
governments and overlords.
As a result, the Kurdish media have been slow to
take advantage of the influx of new businesses and
foreign investment. Billboards now crowd the
roadsides of Kurdistan, but the concept of
advertising in the media has not caught on, in part
because local businesses and newspaper editors do
not understand its benefit. In addition, for proud
Kurds soliciting advertising is considered
tantamount to begging businessmen for money, and few
media outlets are willing to subject their staff to
such a humiliating endeavor. Instead of recruiting
investors and building advertising and circulation
departments, most small papers seek funding from
international charities. They seem quite content to
maintain a precarious financial status so long as
they can struggle along on a shoestring budget.
Given the economic boom and relative political
stability that Iraqi Kurdistan currently enjoys,
independent media could free themselves completely
from party support and catapult into a major
news-providing role in Iraq. But first, they must
make the difficult psychological shift from pursuing
"the cause" above all else, to a broader conception
of their potential role.
Maggy Zanger is a professor of journalism at the
University of Arizona. From August 2003 to December
2004, she served as the Baghdad-based director of
the Iraq program of the Institute for War and Peace
Reporting, a London-based non-governmental
organization
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
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