A delegation of MPs and senior members of the Iraqi media were in Europe recently, researching examples of best practise. Among them was a senior MP from the opposition Iraqiya party and former Minister of Culture, Maysoon al-Damluji, who currently heads the Media and Culture Committee in the Iraqi Parliament.
Al-Damluji met with NIQASH in Berlin to discuss the planned legislation, why, even when people are dying, culture is important and what she believes will happen after the extremist group known as the Islamic State have been pushed out of the country. Al-Damluji also explained why she believes this is truly Iraq's last chance to be a united nation.
NIQASH: How has the security crisis affected the Iraqi media in general, since extremists from the Islamic State group took over territory last June? Has it become more dangerous for Iraqi journalists?
Maysoon al-Damluji: There is the Islamic State and then there are the militias, and then there are outlaws, and they all kill journalists. But the real, ongoing danger is institutionalised.
NIQASH: Could you explain?
Al-Damluji: We have a body called the CMC in Iraq. It was founded by an order written by [US Civil Administrator] Paul Bremer in 2004. The CMC is not only monitored by the Culture and Media Committee, it's also monitored by the Works Committee.
The CMC interferes. They have a very strange set of rules and they interpret Bremer's orders whichever way is useful to them. They are politically motivated and they seem to target journalists they don't like for political [or other] reasons.
NIQASH: What does your committee want to do about this?
Al-Damluji: The challenge is twofold: We need to put together a decent law and then we need to convince all the political blocs to vote for the changes. The plan is to work on a means of financing independent of the government, that can be controlled by Parliament.
And we are also looking at the selection of trustees – the way it's done at the moment, they are appointed by the Prime Minister and we want it to be more reflective of society. We need a more independent IMN that voices the real concerns of the people, not just whoever in is charge of the government.
That's why we are in Berlin right now. It's very difficult. We have a law that came through the government in 2012 and it basically puts the IMN under the control of whoever is in government. Which is totally against what we, as a Committee, believe in.
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