“A lot of Arab, foreign and local media use social media sites to get and disseminate information about the situation in the country,” al-Ujaili says. “Blocking these sites means that media organizations lose contact with correspondents and audiences.”
A lot of Iraqi journalists use the information sent over social media by activists and local residents to try to verify what is happening on the ground. But this was nigh on impossible when the government’s opponents were circulating video clips celebrating the Iraqi army’s losses, and the army’s supporters were posting video clips about military actions and successes.
The situation at the Baiji oil refinery, north of Baghdad, was a prime example. There had been conflicting reports about which group controlled the much-fought-over site for days. And for days journalists were writing completely contradictory reports about what was happening there.
For instance, on June 24, ISIS militants broadcast a video showing locals in Baiji celebrating after their town was captured by ISIS gunmen. A few hours after that the government-run Al Iraqiya channel showed another film clip where its correspondent landed on refinery property in an army helicopter. It was extremely difficult to work out which version of events was correct.
A lot of problems that media organisations faced in trouble spots was not just their journalists’ issues with getting information out, due to a lack of online communication – many had to call in their stories - but they also had to deal with the absence of staff.
Some reporters and media staff left cities where ISIS took charge or they stayed home and opted not to work; ISIS is known for it’s dislike of the media. In Mosul, there had already been a series of assassinations targeting journalists.
So Iraqi media outlets were often forced to rely on information given them by local residents. However as one might expect, this news could not be neutral as people already had their own ideologies or allegiances.
Only a small number of Iraqi media organisations managed to send reporters to the front lines.
Stories from the frontline were rare and often, if they did air, they featured a journalist interviewing a member of the Iraqi military in some heavily fortified area, who talked about how successful a recent Iraqi army operation had just been or how successful one was just about to be.
Most of the frontline reporting was done by Western media organisations who sent reporters and film crews out with the Iraqi Kurdish military. Meanwhile independent Iraqi journalists who wanted to report at hot spots complained that the Iraqi army either did not allow them to come along on missions, or that they had said they could not protect them.
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