Iraq gets a new satellite TV channel

Iraqi newspapers reported on Saturday that Iraq has opened a satellite television channel in an effort to publicise the impact of sanctions imposed on the country for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

"The Minister of Information and Culture Humam Abdul-Khaliq on Friday opened Iraq's satellite channel during the July festival," Al-Qadissiya daily newspaper said.

On Friday Iraq celebrated the 30th anniversary of the 1968 Revolution that brought the ruling Baath party to power.

Map reported that according to Minister Abdul-Khaliq "The TV satellite station will help convey to the whole world and peace-loving peoples a clear picture of Iraq and the effects of the sanctions imposed on it for eight years now."

President Saddam Hussein's annivesary speech inaugurated the satellite channel.

The international sanctions has hit Iraqs poor hardest and caused widespread suffering among children and the elderly, but it can only be lifted when U.N. arms inspectors are satisfied that Iraqs weapons of destruction have been eliminated. Iraq insists this has already been done.