A test case for a new Iraq
In an unprecedented move by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, an Iraqi web blog, www.kitabat.com, is being sued for one billion Iraqi dinars which is equivalent to about Dh3.3 million.
The prime minister's lawsuit was prompted by a January article by Ali Hussain, a writer using a pseudonym, who accused Al Maliki's chief of staff of using his position to get jobs for his relatives.
The Prime Minister's lawyer demanded that Kitabat's editor, Ayad Al Zamili, who has been residing in Germany since the days of Iraq's former Baath regime, pay the astronomical figure.
With that in mind, it was a bit of a surprise when Al Maliki said last week that Iraq was the best country in the Middle East when it comes to Press freedom.
Al Maliki's lawsuit should be seen in the context of a broader media upheaval taking place today not only in Iraq but across the world.
For one, no one expected the media to come together in such a way. At the same time, no one expected Al Maliki's government to push a defamation lawsuit.
In most democratic countries such litigation has become increasingly difficult to pursue, as legislators and courts have recognised that they interfere with the healthy functioning of a free press.
Ironically, the Iraqi government itself appears to have lent credibility to the charge over which it sued the Kitabat website in Germany: that members of the cabinet are corrupt.
Only a few days after the defamation suit, Abdul Falah Al Sudani, Iraq's trade minister, resigned amid allegations of corruption and embezzlement linked to the nation's food assistance programme.
However, Sami Al Askari, Al Maliki's adviser and a member of parliament, looks at the issue from a different perspective. "I believe the freedom of the press in Iraq is unique in the region. Journalists and writers have freedom of expression, but when this freedom transcends into baseless slander, it is the right of the person who is being defamed to resort to courts of law. Democracy and freedom have to apply to both parties"
Of all Iraqi blogs and websites, Kitabat is considered a democratic tent of sorts which houses all Iraqi streams of thought. Marxists, Baathists, Iraqi government backers, opposition groups, artists and poets all share Kitabat's free land.
Al Zamili was able to put together this website - which since 2002 has provided a common ground for different and often clashing views with no physical threat to any participant. The paradox here is that Al Zamili himself rallied everyone around Nouri Al Maliki during the provincial elections that were held last January.
Like all Iraqis, Al Zamili was very supportive about Al Maliki's 'state of law' list which set out to fight corruption, was successful in bringing law and order to the southern governorates, put an end to sectarian tensions, and insisted that Iraq was one country that will never be divided or sectioned.
The question is: should Al Maliki resort to court action against a website owner? As an individual, he may do as he pleases, but as prime minster he has other obligations and responsibilities towards his people.
The Iraqi legal apparatus today is independent and cannot be influenced to a large extent, so it will not take sides in this case even if it is Al Maliki who is suing for libel. Iraqis want to see him withdrawing the case, as he himself was a political refugee for years.
He knows better than anyone else that free speech and free press is one of the basic advantages of his government today, in comparison to the days when just a word would cost Iraqis their lives.
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