Iraq defends Arab TV channel ban, despite critics [View All]

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO846464.htm

Iraq defends Arab TV channel ban, despite critics

BAGHDAD, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Iraq's government on Friday defended its decision to close the Baghdad bureau of Al Arabiya television for "sectarian" reporting, despite criticism from media bodies which called the ban an assault on press freedom.

"If al Qaeda wanted reporters to work for it, it could do no better than the reporters for Arabiya," Yasseen Majeed, media advisor to Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said, a day after cabinet voted to close the channel's Baghdad bureau for a month, accusing it of promoting Sunni Muslim insurgent violence.

Arabiya, a pan-Arab satellite network watched by millions in Iraq, rejected the charges. Spokesman Nasser al-Sarami said its reporters adhered to objective reporting. He said Iraq had not informed the channel which story had prompted the ban.

"We have been trying to contact the Iraqi government on their reason ... but our calls have not been answered," he said at the station's headquarters in the Gulf emirate of Dubai.