Posted on 06/06/2004 9:09:37 AM PDT by Pikamax
Local newspapers warn against ‘personality cult’ as new leaders take office
Baghdad, Iraq Press, June 6, 2004 – Less than two weeks after the selection of the country’s new interim leaders, some local newspapers have warned against attempts to build up “a halo” around them.
The papers were responding to the stream of articles and congratulatory cables published in the media outlets owned by the new leaders in which the writers and senders heaped praise on them.
The Baghdad daily, owned by the interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has dedicated full pages to telegrams of congratulations which it says have been pouring in since his selection to the post.
The daily is run Allawi’s National Accord and the panegyric in the articles and the telegrams published recently has drawn criticism from other newspapers.
The daily has been panned for publishing the telegrams and issuing profiles complimentary of the new prime minister.
“I ask him (Allawi) as the head of the board of this (Baghdad) newspaper to order a halt in the publication of telegrams of congratulation sent to him on the occasion of assuming the interim post of prime minister,” declared one newspaper.
Another newspaper said it was natural for officials getting new posts to receive congratulations but “it is queer to see these cables published verbatim on the pages of newspapers.”
Many Iraqis think that the media played a big role in the creation of the personality cult for the ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
Every newspaper in Iraq was obliged to publish a picture of Saddam on its front page and authors elevated his status to that of a god.
Almost all articles, even those discussing non-political issues, praised “the inspired leader, the liberator, the victorious, etc.” It was reported that Saddam Hussein had more than 150 heroic appellations.
“We have all the right to prevent this from happening. We fear, and with us the sons of our nation, that such a tendency may lead, God forbidding, to a repetition of the bitter media experiment in which Saddam Hussein was made a god-like character,” declared another newspaper.
One newspaper openly lashed out at the way many Iraqis have been expressing their pleasure at the appointment of Ghazi Yawer as president.
It said his supporters have pitched marques in the middle of a main street in the smart al-Mansour district and closed the area to traffic and passers-by.
It said if supporters of every official did the same most of Baghdad streets will be closed.
It urged the interim president to order his backers to remove the tents.
The fall of Saddam Hussein has breathed new life into Baghdad’s once dull and highly controlled press.
Criticism of senior officials was forbidden.
And anyone who criticized Saddam Hussein risked death or life in prison.
Ipfront
Ippol
The dims have their own personality cult with the Clintons. The halo is somewhat tarnished, but somehow they keep hogging the limelight.
Moving foreward on a lesson learned, sounds good to me.
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