French TV reporters prevented from filming

Reporters Without Borders today criticised the government for its systematic restrictions on the right of foreign journalists to work in Iraq, accompanied by often crude attempts at manipulation. In a letter to the Iraqi authorities, the organisation noted that the government claims to want the foreign press to work freely in Iraq and wants journalists to accompany UN weapons inspectors as a guarantee of objectivity. But the recent unfortunate experience of a French television crew belied the promises of transparency, the letter said. French journalists Erick Bonnier and Céline Hue of the television news agency Tony Comiti Productions were denied the right to shoot footage while in Iraq from 9 to 26 November and, despite possessing all the appropriate authorisations, were unable to make the programme for which they had gone there. Cyril Drouhet, the editor in chief of Tony Comiti Productions, said the company "did it the official way," obtaining press visas and all of the authorisations required by the Iraqi bureaucracy. Nonetheless its attempts to report on the "Oil Road" turned into a farce and after two weeks of "bullying, censorship and ludicrous pieces of pantomime by the official guide, who changed every day," the two journalists returned home without having shot any footage, Drouhet said. In Baghdad, the police even banned them from filming rubbish on the grounds saying that "this is not good for the government's image." Drouhet added that in the enormous oil refineries in the northern city of Kirkuk, the only person authorised to give an interview was a pretentious old man who appeared from nowhere while the real workers were kept out of sight.