Iraq’s U.S.-backed governing council has ordered the closure of eminent Arabic-language TV station Al-‘Arabiyya for promoting murder after it broadcast several alleged recordings of Saddam Hussein.
Representatives of Iraq’s Interior Ministry seized the network’s equipment and threatened its journalists with imprisonment, according to some reports.
The Dubai-based network played a recording of Saddam Hussein telling Iraqis to resist the coalition forces and kill members of the governing council.
Reports vary on Al-‘Arabiyya’s reaction.
CNN reported that the network’s administration is still deliberating its response, while AP stated the station would move its Iraqi desk to Dubai.
Al-Jazeera, Al ‘Arabiyya’s competitor, reported that editor ‘Salah Nijm claimed that the order is “unfair” as Western networks like CNN and the BBC broadcast similar speeches by Hussein before the war without protest.
The U.S. State Department expressed its support for the ruling, according to CNN.