The government reverses the10-day work ban on Al Jazeera journalist

On 24 July, the Iraqi authorities lifted the 10-day work ban on Al-Jazeera journalist Diar al-Umari without explanation. The TV station then reopened and staff resumed operations without any change in the way they handled the news. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 07.23.2002 - Al-Jazeera correspondent banned from working for 10 days Reporters Without Borders protested today at Iraq's 10-day ban on Al-Jazeera TV journalist Diar al-Umari, apparently because the regime did not like the way he was reporting. "After Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco and Mauritania, it is now Iraq's turn to censor Al-Jazeera because it no longer likes its frankness" said Reporters Without Border secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to Iraqi Information minsiter, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf. "We await your explanation of this arbitrary step and ask you to cancel at once the ban on Al-Umari" added Ménard. The Qatar-based satellite station said Iraq had banned the journalist from working for 10 days from 20 July "as a punishment for certain words in his dispatches which the information ministry has deemed harmful to Iraq." These included using the term "ruling party" instead of "Arab Socialist Party" to describe the Baath Party. Al-Jazeera editor-in-chief Ibrahim Hilal said the station "vigorously contested" the ministry's suggestion that it had harmed Iraq in its reporting. The station has decided to close its Baghdad office during the 10-day ban. It will be reopened depending on the regime's future attitude to Al-Jazeera and its correspondent. No reply has been received to a letter to the information ministry asking for an explanation, The authorities in Bahrain on 10 May prevented Al-Jazeera from covering local elections in that country.