Iraq sets up press monitor

Iraq's interior ministry has formed a press monitoring unit in response to what it described as "fabricated and false news" that misrepresents the country's security situation. Singling out the Associated Press (AP) for criticism, spokesman Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said on Nov. 30 that a dedicated unit would monitor news coverage and even initiate legal action if journalists do not correct stories it believes to be incorrect. "Fabricated and false news hurts and gives the Iraqis a wrong picture that the security situation is very bad, when the facts are totally different," he said. He added that the media should consult the ministry's large public relations department staff for "real, true news." Khalaf referred to an AP story last week describing an attack on a mosque in north-west Baghdad in which six Sunni Muslims were burnt to death. He said the ministry said it had no records of a Captain Jamil Hussein who had been quoted in the story, and that someone dressed in the ministry's uniform may have given a false name to the reporter in exchange for money. He also said the ministry had found no evidence of the attack or witnesses. The ministry' was backed up by the public affairs department of the US military who demanded that the AP's story be retracted. AP rejected the accusation and said it does not pay for information. In a statement, AP's executive editor Kathleen Carroll said the reporter concerned had been in regular contact with the captain for more than two years, often meeting in his police station in western Baghdad. Other witnesses to the attack had also been interviewed. "The Iraqi spokesman said today that reporting on such atrocities 'shows that the security situation is worse than it really is.' He is speaking from a capital city where people are gunned down in their cars, dragged from their homes or blown apart in public places every single day," said Carroll. "Good reporting relies on more than government-approved sources. We stand behind our reporting."