Publication of Newspapers to Be Resumed in Iraq

A meeting of Iraqi intellectuals is to be held this Saturday at the philological department of Baghdad University. Among other things, the participants will be discussing prospects for resumption of publication of Iraqi newspapers.

None of the local newspapers has been published since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. Iraq's TV and radio had stopped broadcasting even before that. Old newspapers - As Saura, Babil, and Al Jumhuriya - will no longer be in circulation, but the journalists formerly working on their staff will be able to establish new publications, Mohammed Mohsin al-Zubeidin, head of the Baghdad interim administration's Executive Committee, told journalists at a briefing.

In addition, the new political parties, currently in formation in Iraq, will be able to run their own mass media outlets. To date, there are more than 65 political organizations in Iraq. Under Saddam's regime, all Iraqi mass media were under a rigid control of the ruling Baath party.