"Guidance" for Media in Iraq

The administration has been working hard to create the impression that all resistance in Iraq is coming from insurgents crossing the border. And Iraq's new Media High Commission is warning it will crack down on media who do not stick to that message. (Ironically, this "independent" commission was created to support a media free from government control.)

Th commission issued a statement on letterhead from the Iraq prime minister's office, saying that all media organizations operating in Iraq should "differentiate between the innocent Fallouja residents who are not targeted by military operations and terrorist groups that infiltrated the city and held its people hostage under the pretext of resistance and jihad." Furthermore, media should "guide correspondents in Fallouja ... not to promote unrealistic positions or project nationalist tags on terrorist gangs of criminals and killers."

It requested that media "set aside space in your news coverage to make the position of the Iraqi government, which expresses the aspirations of most Iraqis, clear."

In closing: "We hope you comply ... otherwise we regret we will be forced to take all the legal measures to guarantee higher national interests."

Full Reuters article here.