Iraqi editor-in-chief of US funded newspaper quits - cites US interference

[scarletwoman]

and takes most of his staff with him.

From the Boston Globe

Editor-in-chief of U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quits, complaining of American control

By Lee Keath, Associated Press, 5/3/2004 14:47

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The head of a U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quit and said Monday he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication.

On a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were "celebrating the end of a nightmare we have suffered from for months ... We want independence. They (the Americans) refuse."

<snip>

Zayer had sought to break Al-Sabah away from the Iraqi Media Network, which groups the paper, Al-Iraqiya and a number of radio station and is run by Harris Inc., a Florida-based communications company that won a $96 million Pentagon contract in January to develop the media. (my emphasis -- an interesting tidbit of information, imho)

<snip>

"We had a project to create a free media in Iraq, "Zayer said of the founding of Al-Sabah. "They are trying to control us. We are being suffocated."

(more at link...)

Liberation -- ain't it great!

sw

[billybob537]

1. Bravo

Who needs the Americans anyway.

[Crunchy Frog]

2. They're getting a taste

of American style freedom of the press. I'm glad to see that they are less tolerant of it than we seem to be.