http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001658829

 Former KR Baghdad Chief Not Surprised By Payola Program

 By Joe Strupp

Published: December 12, 2005 2:40 PM ET

NEW YORK Recent revelations that the Pentagon has paid hundreds of Iraqi 
journalists for positive stories in the war-torn country are no surprise to 
former Knight Ridder Baghdad bureau chief Hannah Allam. During her two years 
in the capital city, Allam says signs of a "cozy" relationship between U.S. 
officials and the local press were everywhere.

In addition, Allam, who left Baghdad in September to open a Cairo bureau for 
Knight Ridder, noted the existence during her stint of a tabloid-style 
newspaper apparently published by U.S. officials that contained 
previously-published stories--including some of her own--but with negative 
news removed.

"They were removing anything critical and slapping the stories together, 
printing them and distributing them all over Baghdad," she said. "It was 
obviously published by the U.S. I wonder if it was one of the early vehicles 
for these (planted) positive stories." She could not recall the name of the 
tabloid, noting it had not appeared for several months.

Allam's observations are in response to recent revelations of an organized 
propaganda program by the Pentagon, in which the Washington-based Lincoln 
Group paid Iraqi news outlets to run positive stories. While she offers no 
first-hand accounts of that specific arrangement, Allam said U.S. officials 
were often seeking to influence Iraqi journalists in obvious ways.

"I used to see groups of Iraqi journalists going off on (social) trips" with 
the military, said Allam, who ran the Baghdad bureau from 2003 to 2005. "I 
would ask one of them what the were doing and they would say, 'I'm going off 
on a soccer trip with the military.' They were very organized trips," she 
aid, adding that U.S. journalists were never included. "They seemed to be 
really cozy trips."

She also remembered the U.S. embassy last August giving 30 lap top computers 
to Iraqi journalists, including a "fixer" often used by Knight Ridder. "That 
raised some eyebrows," she said. "I don't know what they expect in return."

Allam recalled media events organized by U.S. embassy officials specifically 
for Iraqi press in an apparent effort to influence coverage. She cited one 
such gathering in which a senior embassy official conducted "a basic civics 
lesson about the United States and democracy....But it was insulting to the 
intelligence of the Iraqis, saying things like 'we used to have a problem 
with racism (in the U.S.) but not anymore. ' And they did not want any 
westerners in there."

Asked what she thought of the propaganda program that pays off Iraqi 
reporters, Allam said, "I'm really disappointed because these are 
journalists who have had no experience with a free press. It would have been 
a golden opportunity to set an example and we have squandered that."

Voice Of America reporter Challiss McDonough, who spent six months in 
Baghdad off and on since 2003 and is now in Cairo, agrees. "I think there 
was an opportunity to create a really good press model," she told E&P. "But 
their idea of a good press model is someone who sees things their way."


		
___________________________________________________________ 
To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com