Big surprise: Free press issues in Iraq

Bill Keller, editor of the New York Times, commented that "this ruling has to send a shiver up the spine of anyone who hopes for a genuinely democratic Iraq. What the court calls libel is, in most countries, called journalism. Indeed, if a respected journalist like Ghaith Abdul-Ahad can be punished for reporting on concerns about a trend toward authoritarian government, the verdict would seem to lend credence to those very concerns."

Maliki's party issued a statement today denying that the prime minister had been behind the court ruling over the April article, claiming that the case had been brought by the Iraqi national intelligence service (INIS) without prompting from the political leadership. The statement also insisted that Iraq's judiciary remained independent.

The ruling has brought worldwide condemnation. Some commentators went as far as to compare Maliki to Iraq's former dictator. Patrick Cockburn, the author of three books on Iraq, said: "This means we're halfway down the road to the end of the free press in Iraq, which was one of the few gains from the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. And what makes this so menacing is that not even Saddam tried this ploy [of suing for defamation in the courts] to stifle reporting on Iraq, which after all said far ruder things about him than has been said about Maliki."

Source: Guardian