Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Iraq and Northern Ireland.
Iraq
The PMOS advised journalists that, later today, Towards Freedom TV would start to broadcast in Iraq onto domestic/terrestrial TV channel frequencies. This was a Coalition initiative which aimed, through daily hour-long broadcasts, to provide information to the Iraqi people about the changes to their country. We hoped it would reach an audience of some millions. The first broadcast today would include messages from the Prime Minister and President Bush, subtitled in Arabic, which they had pre-recorded in the private dining room at Hillsborough Castle on Tuesday after their joint press conference. Written and video copies were available. Their statements were also being issued as leaflets, with the President’s message on one side, and the Prime Minister’s message on the other.
The PMOS gave journalists the context for this initiative. He said that Towards Freedom TV followed on from the successful launch of Towards Freedom Radio, which had started broadcasting on 20 March. Towards Freedom TV would include news, discussions and features likely to interest an Iraqi audience, as well as Coalition public service announcements which would help the Coalition to explain its activities and intentions. For example, it would include information relating to water availability and other humanitarian issues. It should also be noted that we were taking considered advice from Iraqi exiles about the content of the broadcasts. Towards Freedom would be broadcast from Commando Solo - the US’s flying radio and TV studio - which was a modified C-130 (Hercules type) aircraft. It was airborne at the moment. In due course, it would also be broadcast from US Special Operations Command mobile radio stations. Much of the programming, for example today’s Bush/Blair broadcasts, was being provided by the UK.
The PMOS said that this would be the first time that most viewers would have had an alternative to Iraqi State Television. It would be their first opportunity to receive news and information about their country that was not directly controlled by Saddam. For decades Saddam’s regime had exercised absolute control over the media. Satellite dishes were illegal. Moreover, the subscription fee for the very limited and censored satellite television was well beyond the means of all but those who were close to the regime.
Iraq’s State Television broadcasting schedule for last weekend gave a good indication of the typical fare available. It had devoted seven-and-a half-hours of airtime to broadcasting some sixty two patriotic songs. There had been fifty six items on regime activities and statements, and a further nine statements on behalf of Saddam. The PMOS went through the lunchtime news running order over last weekend:
- Saddam chairs a meeting with his sons
- Saddam issues a statement ordering soldiers to join their military units
- Saddam rewards two women who carried out suicide bombing against US troops
- Cut to Information Minister news conference
- Statement banning any entry or exit from Baghdad between 1800 and 0600
- Anti-war protests continuing all over the world
The PMOS said that when we talked about aid and humanitarian issues, Towards Freedom TV was another example of how we were trying to develop the situation inside Iraq. Over time, we hoped their own free media would flourish. He took the opportunity to draw journalists’ attention to the fact that the town council in Umm Qasr had changed the hospital name there from ‘The Mother of all Battles Hospital’ to ‘Umm Qasr Hospital’. Equally, in Basra, we hoped that the first Al Zaman newspapers, which were published in London, would be distributed this evening - the first uncensored paper would have read in some decades. Both were signs of normal life starting to return.
Asked to outline the broadcasting schedules of Towards Freedom TV, the PMOS said that it would broadcast for five hours a day - four hours of US information television which would include news and reflect a wide range of views, including critical comment, and one hour of news and information produced by UK sources. Questioned as to whether the broadcasts would report civilian casualties caused by Coalition forces and criticism of the military campaign by parts of the Arab world, the PMOS said that we would start off by producing hour-long broadcasts. They would include arts features, reports on humanitarian aid and a report on the recent meeting between the Prime Minister and Iraqi Opposition leaders. It would endeavour to give as much information to the Iraqi people that was relevant to their daily lives. Primarily this was about furnishing them with practical information about some of the changes taking place in their country. Asked if he was giving an indication that Towards Freedom TV would not provide full news coverage of what was going on Iraq, such as the looting that was taking place, the PMOS said that it would be balanced. The most important thing at this stage was to try to get the looting situation under control. Geoff Hoon had said today that things were now far more settled in Basra than they had been earlier this week - and that there were even examples of items which had been taken being given back and order being restored. This was an indication that there was perhaps a little more civic responsibility than the Iraqi people were being given credit for. Obviously the situation in Baghdad was different. As word spread that the regime was on its way out, this was leading to different scenes in different parts of the city. Asked by the Mirror if journalists could assume that there might not be much criticism of the Coalition’s approach to a post-conflict Iraq in the news bulletins, the PMOS said that Towards Freedom TV was part of the Coalition’s attempt to underline to the Iraqi people why what was happening was happening and to set out our intentions for the country. Journalists had the two statements. In his statement, President Bush had underlined that "The goals of our Coalition are clear and limited….Coalition forces will help maintain law and order so that Iraqis can live in security. We will respect your great religious traditions….We will help you build a peaceful and representative government". Similarly, the Prime Minister had explained in his statement that "Our enemy is Saddam and his regime, not the Iraqi people". Obviously this type of message was very commonplace to the media and the West. However, this would be the first time that many Iraqi people would have heard it. It was important for them to understand what this was all about, our intentions and our determination to ensure that the future of Iraq would be better than its past. Up to this point, they had had a staple diet of Saddam state-controlled broadcasts.
Asked who would be in charge of the editorial content of the broadcasts, the PMOS said that it was a Coalition initiative. However, there was a panel of exiles in the UK and elsewhere who were helping advise on content. The Public Diplomacy Department at the Foreign Office ran the programme and it was out-sourced to World Television, the company which also produced British Satellite News.
Asked if the Government had discussed practical measures which could be taken to control the looting given the Director of the hospital in Basra had said that only fifty out of one hundred and fifty doctors had turned up to work because the others were too worried about the security of their homes and families to leave them and come to work, the PMOS acknowledged that there were security issues, but underlined that they were being addressed. As the Prime Minister had told the House yesterday in PMQs, there would inevitably be a ‘hiatus’ as the people underwent the transition from twenty-five years of brutal dictatorship to liberation and order was restored. Discussions about such matters were currently taking place in the South of Iraq, for example. Brigadier General Brimms had had a meeting with local leaders to discuss some of the wider issues relating to civic order and the establishment of civic councils. That work was clearly beginning to pay off as we started to see the creation of interim local councils. Asked if there were any plans to introduce Coalition police teams as happened in the aftermath of Kosovo and Afghanistan, the PMOS said that thought was being given to all these issues, as you would expect. At the moment, however, we were focussing on the military campaign which had yet to come to an end.
Asked, with the benefit of hindsight, if it had foolish for the Defence Secretary to almost encourage the looting in parts of Iraq by describing the act as the liberation and redistribution of items which had belonged to Saddam’s regime, the PMOS said that given the Iraqi people had been subjected to murder, torture, repression and brutality for many years, it was inevitable that they would express their feelings against some of the symbols of their oppressors. Of course that was not to suggest that order shouldn’t be maintained. On the contrary. However, as the experience of Basra showed, the removal of a brutal regime would inevitably result in a temporary state of flux. Obviously we were not condoning the looting that was going on. However, it was important for people to have some measure of understanding. It went without saying that we were doing whatever we could to help restore order in what the military would call a ’semi-permissive environment’ where security concerns were paramount. But, as the Defence Secretary had pointed out today, there was more civic responsibility than the Iraqi people were being given credit for.
Asked if we agreed with Colin Powell’s declaration that the Americans would chose the Interim Iraqi Administration (IIA), the PMOS said that it was important to focus to what had been said on-the-record by President Bush and the Prime Minister regarding this matter. The establishment of the IIA would flow from the involvement of the emerging leaders of the country, the Coalition and the UN. No one was talking about parachuting in an interim authority. Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about the diplomatic wrangling regarding the setting up of the IIA, the PMOS said that as the Prime Minister had underlined at Hillsborough, with good will, common sense and a focus by the international community on the vision we all shared - an Iraq run by, and for, the Iraqi people themselves - it should be possible to navigate some of these issues in relation to the IIA and the ensuing representative government. A lot of diplomatic discussion was taking place, as you would expect, and that would continue.
In answer to questions about the UN, the PMOS took the opportunity to advise that the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, would not now be visiting the UK or Europe this week. He was due to attend the European Council in Greece next week where he would take the opportunity to speak to European leaders.
Asked if the Prime Minister had been invited to the Summit this weekend being attended by President Putin, President Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder, the PMOS confirmed that the Prime Minister had been invited but, given the pressures on his time at the moment, had been unable to accept.
Northern Ireland
The PMOS said that the Prime Minister was still hoping to travel to Northern Ireland today but that was looking increasingly unlikely. Negotiations were continuing and we would have to await their outcome before deciding one way or the other. As we had been underlining throughout the course of the week, a deal had not yet been done. Asked to clarify the difficulties, the PMOS said that the issues were the ones that were well known. The history of talks in Northern Ireland were such that it was not uncommon, or surprising, to be at this point. Asked to explain what the discussions were about given the Prime Minister and Taoiseach had pledged to publish their blueprint for Northern in mid-April and that there would be no more negotiation, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister and Taoiseach were talking to the parties about the issues that were well known to everyone. This was still a live issue which we should take hour-by-hour. That was where we were at the moment. When there was clarity one way or the other, we would let people know.
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