Free(ish) speech in Iraqi journalism

In another ironic twist of the war in Iraq, it turns out that the Pentagon has hired outside contractors to pay Iraqi news organization and their employees to write--and publish--positive news about the war. And according to a U.S. Defense Department review of this plan, it's all legal.

As the Washington Post suggests in a October 23 editorial (which can be read here), the American military has its reasons for wanting the Iraqi people to think things are going well. But there's a major error in this reasoning. In a war that is supposed to be about bringing democracy to a former military dictatorship, something is more than a bit off with America's attempts to make the Iraqi press not quite as free as our own.

Here in America, free speech and the vital role of the press in maintaining it is one of the most important parts of the working democracy. We take issue when politicians try to limit the power of the pen or to operate it themselves. So how is it legitimate to do the same under our watch in a different part of the world?

In a statment relesed to the Post, the Pentagon argued that "the current situation in Iraq necessitates that the coalition maintain the capability to communicate with the Iraqi people via the Iraqi media."

Apparently that means communicating our interests first, and everything else in a distant second.

-EG