Saddam Hussein approves non official papers to develop the Iraqi media

Iraqi official sources have revealed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has approved "a new media plan" providing for licensing non-official new dailies and reconsidering the country's political address on radio and television as well as to issue a daily distributed on the Arab states, taking Cyprus as its headquarters.

The sources said that during the most recent meeting of the Iraqi Cabinet on March 3, the Iraqi president gave "the green light" for the launch of a new media campaign that restores effectiveness to the Iraqi media. The sources added that one of the new dailies will be licensed to the Iraqi national figure Wameed Omar Nazimi, who had earlier complained about the refusal of the Iraqi authorities to approve a daily paper which he seeks to be "an Iraqi national forum, but not necessarily in line with the government's specifications."

However, within a short period of time a company registered in Cyprus will start to release a pro-Iraqi government daily. Despite assertions made by Iraqi official media sources that the official media establishments have no relevance to the paper, which is expected to be published, yet the official media establishments admitted the founders of this paper, "Iraqi and Palestinian journalists," are close to the directives of the Iraqi government, with which they share "common vision on the national domain."

Iraqi official sources moreover stressed that the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and Information advanced new equipment needed for television and radio broadcasting in order to intensify efforts aimed at "reaching the voice of Iraq to all parts of Iraq."

The sources indicated the changes will "cover the Iraqi media systems" in order to reactivate the performance which has been characterized as being monotonous, noting that "more dynamic and open figures will shoulder the responsibility of the media."