If you were called to help newspaper development in Iraq, would you go?

It is a legitimate question, particularly for American newspaper professionals. Democracy cannot take root without a viable independent press. But Iraq can’t go it alone. Western media professionals are needed to make assessments, provide advice and direction, train journalists and managers, and help build the presses, distribution networks and other infrastructure.

Since the United States government has committed itself, at enormous cost, to create the first Arab democracy in the Middle East, there is an additional incentive for American newspaper professionals to contribute to this effort.

So, if you’re offered an opportunity to help the Iraqi press, and you decide to risk the bombs and bullets to lend a hand - what would you find there?

For a start, economic and material conditions that would drive editors and managers to despair in the industrialized world. Imagine getting up before dawn and conducting an “auction” among people with cars, who bid for the opportunity to distribute that day’s paper in Baghdad. Every day, the same auction. And different cars and drivers.

This is a country where Saddam Hussein’s rightly feared son, Uday, was head of the journalists union and was named journalist of the year several times. It’s a place where the Ministry of Information employed “journalists” and their ranks were infiltrated by the security services.

All were fired when the government fell, and thousands remain out of work.

The majority of media professionals have politicized backgrounds; either for the government-controlled press, or for the opposition press in exile. There are few experienced journalists, editors and managers to operate independent media.

Much is required

Moreover, there is virtually no newspaper infrastructure. The broadcasting and distribution systems, the main national printing plants, the national news agency and several newspapers have been dismantled.

Most of this information comes from international media assessment missions to Iraq conducted by the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Federation of Journalists, the Federation of Arab Journalists, Index on Censorship, the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, International Media Support and others.

All  agree that much is needed. But no one agrees more than the Iraqi journalists themselves.

“Ever since the fall of the former regime, many people have called for developing the performance of mass communication and media outlets in order to reflect the progress in democracy,” said Basim al-Sheikh, the editor of Addustour, an independent daily.

“Now, a year after the fall, nobody has supported these calls except for some minor attempts here and there. Neither material nor technical support has been given to Iraqi media,” said al-Sheikh, interviewed by the Iraqi Press Monitor.

Al-Sheikh and others contend that the creation of media outlets by the Governing Council and the Coalition Provisional Authority has drawn funds away from developing independent Iraqi media.

“The question is how to develop Iraqi media,” he said. “Is it our task to develop American media in Iraq or to develop Iraqi media that serves the Americans?”

Need and desire apparent

Despite enormous obstacles, many new newspapers have been created since the fall of Saddam, though most could not be called independent - they are aligned with political parties, religious groups and other interest groups. According to the latest count by BBC Monitoring and Arab Press Freedom Watch, 163 newspapers operate in Iraq - testimony to  the need and desire for news and information.

So what can be done to encourage the creation of independent media?

An interim Media Commission is being established under which a regulatory framework for press self-regulation will be introduced, public service broadcasting will be developed and broadcast licenses will be issued. The Iraqi Media Network, backed by the coalition, is expected to be changed into a public-interest broadcasting corporation.

The most pressing needs, according to many of the assessment missions, are to establish a media policy that complies with international standards of freedom of expression and to train journalists and managers through a “twinning” arrangement with well-established institutions.

The UN and World Bank estimate that it will cost $240 million to rebuild the Iraqi media between now and 2007, with $220 million of that earmarked to a national broadcast network. The groups estimate that $4.5 million will be needed to build the print media’s infrastructure.

At a Media Development in Post-war Iraq conference held in London last year, in which WAN participated, organizations involved in training agreed to coordinate their efforts in the country.

Finding right people

“The problem is to find the right people to link up and train,” said Siayamend Othman, an Iraqi Kurd, former researcher at Amnesty International and former senior vice president at United Press International. “There are many good writers in Iraq but few good journalists, so there is a need for training. Moreover there is a huge need for training in media management.”

But history, both recent and relatively long-term, has shown that the most pressing need will be to create an environment where independent media can thrive as businesses. Without viable advertising markets, a population that can afford to buy newspapers and printing and distribution systems free of government control, these nascent efforts will fail. And what’s the use of good journalism if there is nowhere for it to appear?

There have been some successes in this area. In Serbia, where WAN has helped create an independent distribution company and build a printing press, the independent press is competitive and has been attracting foreign investment (the biggest independent daily, Blic, was recently sold to Switzerland-based Ringier).

WAN, in fact, was created just for this purpose, by publishers following World War II who banded together to help rebuild independent newspapers in the defeated countries of Europe.

The work of the organization has expanded exponentially since then, providing industry-wide research, analysis and information, but its original mandate remains. Sadly, as seen in Iraq and many other countries, there is still a need for this work today.

Larry Kilman is director of communications of the Paris-based WAN and is a former correspondent for The Associated Press, Radio Free Europe and Agence France-Presse. More information on what WAN does to help press development can be found at http://www.wan-press.org/article37.html.