NIQASH: How has official Iraqi media – like the IMN - reacted to the current security crisis?
Al-Damluji:Unfortunately what's happened is that they are using the same naive propaganda tactics that the Baath regime [headed by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein] also used, like having silly songs against the Islamic State group. That's how they deal with it - instead of fostering real, intellectual debate on all sides, or listening to all sides; that just doesn't happen.
NIQASH: So would you say that there's a “government line” that Iraqi media are sticking to?
Al-Damluji: Not really. There are attempts to stick to one line but it's not really working. Because I tell you, there are number of political parties that are not happy with this situation either, even among the Shia parties themselves.
NIQASH: Speaking more generally, how has the security crisis affected the media scene overall? It feels like there is more inflammatory language around, that seems to be based on the country’s deepening sectarian divide.
Al-Damluji: Yes, that is absolutely right. It is mainly the networks that were already sectarian. Now they have an excuse. They're more confident.
I think there was more diversity previously. Now obviously everyone is against the Islamic State group, nobody likes them. But in the past, the real concerns of real people were expressed in the media. Not terrorists, just ordinary people. You don't get this any more. Now it's all just about the war on the IS.
NIQASH: Is it possible to stop this kind of thing? Should you even want to?
Al-Damluji: It must be [stopped]. There has to be an end to this kind of discrimination. For instance, the Yazidis [an Iraqi ethnic group] have had the worst year - yet in most [Iraqi] media networks you find nothing about the Yazidis. Because they are not Muslims and they are not Christians and they have no real political power.
NIQASH: There's been a lot in the media about how the Islamic State uses the Internet to recruit people and also to spread propaganda. Does that worry you at all?
Al-Damluji: There was a bill in the last Parliament about Internet crimes but we put a stop to it [Editor's note: Parliament voted against it because it was considered too broad and could have led to the law being used against political opponents]. But because there is not an Internet law the courts now go back to a 1969 law. So now we're pushing for a new Internet crimes law in order to stop the courts using the 1969 law.
We have written to the Speaker [of Parliament] saying we would like to have the first reading. But I think it will take some time. It's a very broad subject.
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