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Iraqi Kurdistan to set up $400 mln “media city”
25.4.2007
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April 25, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq),-- The
Kurdistan regional government and a Dubai firm are
to build a $400 million “media city” in Erbil in the
hope of luring international media groups to the
more stable northern region of Iraq, officials said.
Under the deal to create the Erbil City Media
Company, the regional government will have a 60
percent stake and the Dubai sound TV and Cinema
Production company 40 percent.
Start-up capital will be $40 million. The company,
which will oversee the creation of a complex of
television studios, hotels, shops and housing, will
then be open to shareholders.
Anwar al-Yasiri, an Iraqi who runs the Dubai
company, said his firm and a British company would
build the complex in a northern Erbil suburb within
two years.
“The philosophy of the government to support such a
project is to create job opportunities for the sons
of the area and to support and develop the tourism
and media city sectors,” Civil Society Affairs
Minister George Mansour told Reuters.
The project will include a television transmission
and re- transmission centre with a capacity for up
to 120 stations.
“This project will put the Kurdistan area on the
international map when television stations start
airing from that area,” Yasiri said.
Business costs in the Kurdistan region are
significantly lower than in neighbouring regions
such as Dubai after the government passed liberal
foreign investment laws last year.
“Even if in the beginning we are only able to
provide services for 60 television stations, this
will still generate profits, but we expect a much
bigger size of work,” Yasiri said.
Six satellite television stations currently air from
Kurdistan where hundreds of foreign companies,
including 400 Turkish ones, also operate.
Kurdistan has a spotty record on press freedom.
Several journalists have been punished for defaming
Kurdish political leaders.
Recently, Kurdistan’s Health Ministry and the local
doctors’ association suspended a doctor for six
months because he wrote a newspaper article about
homosexuality.
Last August, a media rights group said nine
reporters were among those detained during
demonstrations for improved public services in
Kurdistan.
Reuters
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