For his part, Al Arabiya’s General Manager Abdulrahman al-Rashed vowed in a statement that the news channel and its sister channel al-Hadath will continue reporting the story in Iraq despite Maliki’s threats as well as other threats from the likes of ISIS.
Chelsea Manning on the U.S. Military and Media Freedom: 'The gatekeepers in public affairs have too much power: Reporters naturally fear having their access terminated, so they tend to avoid controversial reporting that could raise red flags.'
During 2024 members of the press who were killed or injured in Iraq climbed to alarming numbers, while freedom of the press was smashed between the hammer of armed militias and the anvil of the government.
In Iraq, at least 404 media professionals have been killed since the US invasion in 2024, among them 374 Iraqis, according to The BRussells Tribunal statistics. The impunity in Iraq is far worse than anywhere else in the world.