TV stations closed over Saddam trial reports
Iraqi security forces closed two Sunni Muslim television stations today for violating curfew and a law that bans airing material that could undermine the country’s stability after Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang.
Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said the Al-Zawraa and Salahuddin stations were closed on the approval of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
He said the stations violated a curfew imposed in three provinces by speaking to people in the streets and airing their comments that were deemed to “incite violence”.
In July, Maliki warned television stations against broadcasting video that could undermine Iraq’s stability.
Airing programmes or comments that incite violence or call for hatred are considered a violation of Iraq’s anti-terrorism law, Khalaf said.
In September, the Iraqi government ordered the Arabic satellite network Al-Arabiya to shut down its Baghdad operations for one month.
The other pan-Arab satellite network, Al-Jazeera, had its office in the capital closed two years ago.
