International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 6, June 2015 1 ISSN 2250-3153 www.ijsrp.org Protest and the Media in Iraq: Introduction, the progress, the protest Ahmed J. Bahiya De Montfort Univeristy.UK Abstract- The Iraqi media industry has witnessed a significant change after the American led invasion in 2003. This period is considered to be a major period of transformation in Iraq media history, as it moved from a completely restricted form of media coverage to one of the most open media sectors in the Middle East. After the fall of Saddam Hussein regime Iraqi media sector witnessed the emergence of ‘free-for-all media’ and a significant number of media productions released as a mouthpieces of various ‘political, religious, or ethnic groups’. This new form of media played an important role in serving as a communication tool of the Iraqi population as a whole. However, that role has been affected by sectarian agendas and the domination of media ownership. The new media landscape has developed in an era of domination, based on the presence of new controlling forms, including ethno-sectarian, political, Islamic, and independent factions, as well as the appearance of media personas. The emergence of this new media affected significantly the way that issues were dealt with in the country, especially the wave of protests that spread across Iraq. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the media role in covering and dealing with the protests happened in the country. Additionally, it shows the role that social media sites played sustaining such protests. Index Terms- Media industry in Iraq, changes, traditional media, Social media, protests. I. INTRODUCTION n recent years, Iraqi media landscape witnessed a significant development since the end of the draconian control by the Ba’ath party in 2003. Media components start to serve as an Iraqi population voice to deliver their own social, economic and political problems. Media sector has been considered as a mirror to reflect the view of the real situations that Iraqi people face in their daily life. A number of Iraqi media channels have played a challenging role particularly in facing the shortcomings of the Iraqi government by addressing various issues such as corruption, services shortcomings, poverty, and unemployment as well as calling for governmental reform. At the same time, several channels have broadcasted entertainment programs as an outlet for many Iraqi people. Indeed, it is important to state that such media diversity has impacted positively since 2003. In spite of the fact that the Iraqi media landscape has currently reached an era of incredible evolution, unfortunately a new domination form has been emerged. This kind of domination was directed by an ethno-sectarian, political, Islamic, and independent factions, as well as media characters. All means of communication have been owned either by Arab Sunni, Arab Shi’a parties, Iraqi Kurdish or Turkmen groups. Such groups dominate the most media outlet such as TV channels, radio stations and prints. The main stream of such media production is mainly used to disseminate its owner’s agendas and ideologies. This form of manipulated media has massively participated in the crisis of sectarianism and fragmentation of the Iraqi population. Serving particular agendas and reflecting certain ideologies might be the clear objective in recent Iraq’s media outlet. It seems that the new controlling process of the media sector in Iraq consist of certain implications which have imposed new restrictions on media activities. Nevertheless, the neutral independent media also has been presented in the Iraqi media industry. Such type of mass media form could be described as non-affiliated ones. The main characteristic of this type of media is the lack of the governmental funds and physical protection provided by political factions. Hence, it might be worth to declare that the new Iraqi media has shaped for the Iraqi population their own type of media. II. IRAQI MEDIA PRE AND POST 2003 A-Iraqi media Scene before 2003: brief overview Until 2003, the media state in Iraq was tightly controlled by the Ba’ath Party and Saddam Hussein’s Iron government. In 1968, the Ba’ath Party detained power in Iraq and Saddam Hussein seized the presidency through it in 1979 (Ewad and Eton, 2013). Since that period and over 35 years Sadam’s rule the flow of information was controlled and the media in Iraq constructed to serve the government agendas. Iraqi media agencies were all owned by the government and run through the Ministry of Information who allowed the Ba’ath party to direct media production in Iraq by directing and supervising daily press releases and broadcasting programs. There was only one main TV channel named Iraqi TV, which was mainly directed to broadcast patriotic songs and government news (mastersofmedia, 2012). Another TV channel called “Al-shabab TV” was owned by Sadam Hussein eldest son Uday Saddam (mastersofmedia, 2012).Also the oppressive domination of media sector extended when the Uday Saddam has been chosen to lead the Iraqi Journalists Union In the early 1990s (Isakhan 2009; Bengio 2004: 111; Daragahi 2003: 47; Bengio 1998: 8).. In addition, radio operation and daily newspapers production were also censored by Ba’ath faction. There was only five newspapers and four radio stations (Amos, 2010). According to the International Alliance for Justice (as cited in: Daragahi, 2003; 46) Ba’th rule executed and detained more than 500 Iraqi journalists and writers. Ofra Bengio has described the mediascape as ‘an omnipotent propaganda machine (which) played the role of the I