Controlling Iraq's 'PBS'

[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Charles Levinson]
Nearly 50 percent of Iraqis tune into Al Iraqiya, a state funded news channel. The country's leading network was founded in 2003 by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Critics say that Iraq's version of America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has simply become a propaganda tool for the country's leading Shiite politicians. Al Iraqiya was meant to stand as a model for a burgeoning independent press, but seems to have instead become one more political spoil for its competing factions. An important battle has been brewing for much of the past year: the fight for control of Al Iraqiya - which according to a recent Ipsos Stat poll is Iraq's most watched network - and its umbrella company, the Iraqi Media Network (IMN). In addition to controlling Iraq's most-watched television station, IMN owns the country's leading daily newspaper, Al Sabbah, and a popular radio station. It was meant to be an independent media company protected from the country's political wrangling by a nine person board of governors. But many Iraqis say that hasn't happened. They view the IMN instead as one more sectarian battlefield in an increasingly divided country. Many, including the IMN's own board of governors, say top government officials have repeatedly interfered with its editorial decisions. Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, they say, effectively took control of the company after taking power last year. His office, they allege, worked to turn the IMN's various media outlets into mouthpieces for his policies and Dawa Party allies, hiring and firing editors, and directing editorial policy. (hey, if it works in America...)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0110/p06s01-woiq.html