Iraqi National Media Pool Installed
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2005
The first media pool of Iraqi Journalists convened in the Baghdad Convention Center on September 29th to celebrate their first successful media collaboration and coordinate future pools. "This is a real development for Media in Iraq," explained a woman reporter from Dijla radio who recently toured Abu Ghraib Prison as a member of the September media pool, "it enables us to get first hand information, which before was inaccessible."
The Iraqi National Media Pool consists of more than twenty five national media bureaus. Four reporters are selected from the pool on a rotating basis to cover events on behalf of all the bureaus, allowing these individuals access to high profile stories including interviews, coverage of VIP visits, and major media events.
USAID, with the military's Combined Press Information Center (CPIC), PCO, PAO of the US Embassy and the Iraqi media worked jointly to launch the program, support basic media trainings, and instill higher reporting standards among the Iraqi press.
The CPIC representative explained that dissemination of information is the most important component of the pool, "CPIC doesn't want to be the central distributor because we want the Iraqis to take ownership." The afternoon meeting accomplished just that. With Iraqis actively engaged in discussion, and leadership emerging, the Iraqis have taken responsibility for the media pool. Reporters were anxious to participate in the October pool.
Before 2003, the Iraqi media and public information were under full control and censorship by the former regime while the concept of free press was nonexistent. Today, Iraqi journalists are attempting to create an institutional environment where Iraqi media may have access to international sources and resources in order to enable them freely to report to the Iraqi people and the rest of the world.
The Iraqi National Media Pool is breaking down barriers to information, allowing Iraqi journalists to penetrate media stories that were before unattainable, and forcing a higher standard of objectivity and professional reporting among Iraq's media.
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