The Rag Blog: A Rough Day for Democracy in the Middle East

06 November 2006

A Rough Day for Democracy in the Middle East

Iraq shuts two Sunni TV stations
Monday, November 6, 2006 (Baghdad)

Iraqi security forces closed two Sunni Muslim television stations for violating curfew and a law that bans airing material that could undermine the country's stability, the Interior Ministry said.

Brig Gen Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said on Sunday that the Al-Zawraa and Salahuddin stations were closed on the approval of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Khalaf said that 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."

The owner of Al-Zawraa, legislator Mishan al-Jabouri, said later that Iraqi police raided the headquarters of the station and cordoned them off because of the channel's criticism of the verdict.

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