Media in Iraq cooped up by danger (And by US "minders")

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BAK647177.htm

BAGHDAD, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Iraq's election may be getting blanket coverage around the world, but most Western journalists face deadly barriers to first-hand reporting on the crucial vote. snip

Aware of the limitations and the dangers, the U.S. and British embassies are providing transport for journalists, laying on trips around Iraq in helicopters and armoured convoys.

The press facilities, which began in mid-January, generally involve taking 10 to 15 reporters to a fixed location outside Baghdad where they have an opportunity to interview a few locals and officials, shoot some pictures and then fly back.

The trips, which are subject to the vagaries of security and weather, have thrown a lifeline to journalists keen to get out of the Baghdad bubble and in touch with the rest of Iraq.

But the excursions -- with their inevitable echoes of Saddam Hussein's time when reporters could only venture out escorted by Iraqi information ministry minders -- have also raised questions about the role U.S. and British authorities are playing in how the world's media cover what should be an entirely Iraqi affair.

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