Introduction |
In 2003, when the government in Iraq fell, Zuhair al-Jezairy, a war correspondent, returned to Baghdad to cover events in his homeland. In 2004 he became the editor-in-chief of Aswat al-Iraq (known in English as Voices of Iraq or VOI).
Voices of Iraq was founded to be a news agency offering objective reporting on Iraq for the Iraqi media. The agency provided news and feature stories (at no charge under a grant from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)) to the burgeoning Iraqi press. Under the auspices of the Reuters Foundation, VOI also served as a training ground for reporters working in Iraq's newly unfettered news environment.
Challenges facing Zuhair al-Jezairy and Aswat al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq)
The work proved challenging. Reporters in Iraq faced grave personal danger as religious and ethnic violence swept the nation. In addition, Al-Jezairy also faced more prosaic concerns. VOI had to find a business model that would allow the news agency to survive once western grants ran out. Specifically, VOI had to answer a number of questions:
- How could the agency mitigate the dangers that threatened the lives of reporters?
- How could the agency provide objective news when reporters were part of divisions within Iraqi society?
- Given that Iraq had not had a free press in many decades, how could reporters develop journalistic skills, so the agency could present a balanced view in spite of the divisions?
- Would VOI have to create new standards of objectvity given the nature of its environment?
- Almost all of the hundreds of newspapers that emerged in Iraq presented
particular political, religious, or ethnic perspectives. Even as some began
to present wider views, dependence on political advertising brought into
question their interest in paying for objective news services. Was
there a market for objective news in a country divided by religion and
ethnicity?
- By late 2008, VOI supplemented its grants with multiple services: (1) articles for Iraqi newspapers, including news, sports, finance, and features; (2) a multiple-language website accessed by more individuals outside Iraq as within the country; (3) a short-message service providing quick news updates for cellphone subscribers. What products would allow VOI to become financially sustainable?
More globally, observers wondered about the role of a news agency in the time of civil strife. Voices of Iraq maintained that by presenting life “between car bomb and car bomb,” its stories of finance, sports, and features of everyday life illuminated the commonality of the experiences of all Iraqis. Could objective journalism be a force to help heal a fractured society?
On October 13, 2008, in an apartment outside Washington D.C., Zuhair al-Jezairy sat down for an interview with the Yale School of Management. Each tab of this website presents a portion of the videotaped interview, along with links to additional resources.
Additional Resources
Two BBC websites provide background information on Iraq. A timeline of the history of Iraq is here. A description of life in post-Saddam Iraq, with descriptions of religious and ethnic divisions within Iraq, is here.
the map of Iraq (above) is from the CIA World Factbook. A map showing the 18 governates, administrative divisions within Iraq, is here.
A country study of Iraq written during the reign of Saddam Hussaein gives a view of the country before the current war. Prepared for the Library of Congress in 1988, each short section highlights a particular aspect of Iraqi history or culture. The table of contents is here. Note particularly the sections on religion and the people.
David Little, Donalk K. Swearer, eds., Religion and Nationalism in Iraq: A Comparative Perspective, Harvard University Press, 2006.