(19 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Baghdad, Iraq – 19 October 2024
1. Iraqi security forces arriving for deployment in the area
2. Various of forces blocking the road
3. Police officers guarding the site
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abu Hashim (no other names given), eyewitness:
“Yesterday, we heard (bullets) hitting, fire, and we didn’t know what was going on. So, we came out to see what was happening and we saw MBC burned down. I believe (because) they spoke about the leaders and those things. I mean, the security situation must be in the hands of the state, right? If the situation remains like this, citizens should be worried about themselves too.”
5. Various of police patrols deployed in the area
STORYLINE:
Iraq’s commission governing media on Saturday announced that it would take steps to revoke the license of a Saudi television station to operate in the country.
The move came hours after dozens of supporters of Iraqi militias stormed and looted the office of the Saudi broadcaster MBC in Baghdad.
Their action was in protest over an MBC report that described a number of Iranian-linked militant figures – including a prominent Iraqi militia leader – as "terrorists".
Security forces were deployed to the area and were seen cordoning off streets near the MBC office.
The television station’s report on "terrorists" who had been killed in this century mentioned former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden alongside a roster of Iran-backed figures.
They included Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
It also mentioned Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a veteran Iraqi militant who was the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, and founder of the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades.
The Popular Mobilization Forces are an umbrella group of mostly Shiite paramilitaries.
The Media and Communications Commission said MBC had violated Iraq’s broadcasting regulations through "attacks on the martyrs, leaders of victory and heroic resistance leaders who are fighting the battle of honor against the usurping Zionist entity," referring to Israel.
It said that it would order its executive office to cancel the station’s work license.
The station had already closed its doors following Saturday’s attack.
Saudi Arabia’s regulatory authority for media subsequently announced it had referred “officials of a TV channel to investigation due to a news report that violates the Kingdom’s media regulations and policy.”
It didn’t name MBC.
The controversy came against the backdrop of heightened regional tensions surrounding the wars between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have played a minor role in the conflict.
They have launched drone attacks on bases housing U.S. troops in the country in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel, and, increasingly in recent months, at targets within Israel.
AP video by Ali Jabar
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