Staff Of U.S.-Funded Iraqi Paper Quits, Cites U.S. Control

In a front-page editorial, the editor-in-chief of Al-Sabah cites what he claims is American interference in the newspaper's publication.

Al-Sabah was set up last year by Florida-based Harris Incorporated under a contract with the Pentagon. Since then, the publication has been seen by many Iraqis as a mouthpiece for the U.S. coalition.

Editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he wanted to move away from the Harris-operated Iraq Media Network, which also includes a U.S.-funded television station.

Zayer said he plans to publish a new paper starting Tuesday. Harris officials said Al-Sabah will resume publishing Tuesday with a new staff.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3266699/detail.html

Newspaper head quits over US censorship

By Lee Keath, Associated Press
May 4, 2004

BAGHDAD -- The head of a US-funded Iraqi newspaper quit and said yesterday he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication.

In a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were "celebrating the end of a nightmare we have suffered from for months. . . . We want independence. They [the Americans] refuse."

Al-Sabah was set up by US officials with funding from the Pentagon soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. Since its first issue in July, many Iraqis have considered it the mouthpiece of the US-led coalition, along with the US-funded TV station Al-Iraqiya.

Zayer said that nearly the entire staff left the paper along with him and that they were launching a new paper called Al-Sabah Al-Jedid ("The New Morning"), which would begin publishing today.

Zayer had sought to break Al-Sabah away from the Iraqi Media Network, which groups the paper, Al-Iraqiya, and a number of radio stations, and is run by Harris Inc., a Florida-based communications company that won a $96 million Pentagon contract in January to develop the media.

"We informed [Zayer] that the paper would remain part of the IMN," said Tom Hausman of Harris' corporate communications. "He made the decision to resign." He said Al-Sabah would continue publishing today with a new staff.

"We had a project to create a free media in Iraq," Zayer said of the founding of Al-Sabah. "They are trying to control us. We are being suffocated."

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/05/04/head_of_us_funded_newspaper_quits/