NEW POLITICAL FORCE SPROUTS IN BAGHDAD: SATELLITE TV

May 30, 2003
As a visible sign of change in Iraq, the Apr. 9 toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in central Baghdad is hard to beat. But something new comes close.

Bob Tippee

As a visible sign of change in Iraq, the Apr. 9 toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in central Baghdad is hard to beat.

But something new comes close.

"Satellite television dishes are sprouting like mushrooms on rooftops in post-Saddam Hussein Baghdad," reports Valentinas Mite of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Iraqis don't have much money. But many of them are finding the $150-250 they need for each satellite TV set-up.

Saddam's regime had prohibited satellite TV receivers. According to Mite's report, the former authorities confiscated dish antennas and fined owners $200.

Legally, Iraqis could watch only state-controlled television while Saddam ran the country.

The state broadcasts featured such icons of credibility as the former information minister who, during the war just ended, promised Iraqi victory even as coalition forces rumbled into Baghdad.

And, being run by the state, it was no doubt mercilessly boring.

In controlling television to restrict what people learn about the outside world, Iraq was by no means unique among Persian Gulf monarchies.

Others have outlawed satellite dishes, claiming to be protecting citizens from the noxious influence of foreign culture. Of course they're really just protecting themselves from the proliferation of inconvenient ideas.

Political oppression, though, is no match for technology. When dishes shrank to concealable sizes a few years ago, residents of politically touchy countries lucky enough to have attics are said to have begun spending more time than before at home nights.

And the political anesthesia of state-controlled broadcasting began to wear off.

Now the gulf even has its own regional broadcaster: Doha-based Al-Jazeera, which is popular among newly tuned-in Iraqis and comfortable with controversy.

Few dish-equipped Iraqis watch US cable news networks such as CNN and Fox, however. Viewing those channels on Iraqi receivers requires encoding cards, which cost $100 apiece.

For a provisional government eager to instill a taste for freedom and democracy in Iraq, purchase of several thousand encoders for gratis distribution would be a wise investment.

Note to readers: This column will next appear on June 13.

(Online May 30, 2003; author's e-mail: [email protected])