Daily newspaper shut down for a month

Reporters Without Borders protested today against the government's closure for a month of the country's most influential newspaper, Babel.. "Even though the paper is owned by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, himself a notorious censor of the media, it has recently published the views of regime opponents and criticised corruption and inefficiency in the regime," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. "The authorities were quick to react as usual. Whatever the reason for this episode, which seems to be a settling of scores, we call for the immediate reopening of this rare window to the outside world," he said. An official source simply said the paper had "violated the instructions of the information ministry," which announced the closure on 20 November. All Iraqi media rigidly follow official propaganda, but Babel and the young people's TV station Shebab, which is also controlled by Uday Hussein, have recently tackled some sensitive topics. Shebab relays programmes from other Arab stations, especially Al-Jazeera, that are normally inaccessible to Iraqis, since the government bans satellite receiver dishes. Babel published a report on 17 November about the fate of the president's family if there was war between Iraq and the United States. It said Libya had denied a story in the British daily The Times that President Hussein was ready to pay Libya billions of dollars if it gave political asylum to him, his family and top aides. Babel also reported the views of Iraqi regime opponents, even though it dismissed them as "miserable traitors in the pay of the United States." Once thought to be the strongest candidate to succeed his father as president, Uday Hussein is also head of Iraq's journalists union, the National Olympic Committee and the Iraqi football federation. In 2000, he won election to parliament, claiming 99,99% of the vote in his constituency. The main source of news about US threats to the country are still foreign radio stations, such as the BBC, Radio Monte Carlo or Radio Sawa, an Arabic-language station funded by the US which has been broadcasting from Jordan since March.