Indymedia Censors attacks on Iraqi Artists

Hussein Al-alak, The Iraq Solidarity Campaign13 mei 2008 – 22:24

Would someone be so kind and please explain why the Indymedia UK website has taken down the following article: "Iraqi artists and singers flee amid crackdown on forbidden culture" by Afif Sarhan in Baghdad and Caroline Davies.

13 May 2008

http://iraqsolidaritycampaign.blogspot.com/2008/05/artists-flee-crackdow...
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Wall1.htm#indymedia

The article is about the persecution of artists in Iraq and the cultural cleansing by sectarian death squads, with death threats and killings being directed against actors, singers and painters and even includes a paragraph about how one person was even beheaded for his trade.

The article was first published by the national Observer newspaper on May 11th 2008 and has also been carried by highly respected online Middle Eastern sites including Uruknet and Iraqi Solidarity News (Al-Thawra) but yet, the article has been taken off Indymedia, by what appears to be a member of the Indymedia Collective.

What is worrying, is that Indymedia claims to be an "independent" media outlet and is allegedly run by radicals, leftists and members of the British anti-war movement but quite possibly, anti-Arab (anti-Semitic) sentiments maybe prevalent if the person who removed the article cannot cope with statements such as "Culture was encouraged under Saddam, but not anymore".

It maybe the case that the authors of the article should not have mentioned the fact that until the invasion of Iraq, the country did have a thriving culture or that "Cinemas, art galleries, theatres, and concert halls are being destroyed in grenade and mortar attacks in Basra and Baghdad", but the question that comes to mind is why the plight of the Iraqi people is being censored by the British anti-war movement .

"According to the Iraqi Artists' Association, at least 115 singers and 65 actors have been killed since the US-led invasion, as well as 60 painters. But the terror campaign has escalated in recent months as both Shia and Sunni extremists grow ever bolder in enforcing religious restrictions on the citizens of Iraq."

It appears though, that in Great Britain it has become advisable to not mention the destruction of Babylon by the occupying forces, the growing illiteracy among Iraqi children or the killings of those in the arts because clearly, in a "democracy" your words may just be censored.

Indymedia Respond Hussein Al-alak, The Iraq Solidarity Campaign

DIRK ADRIAENSENS, 16/05/2008 – 21:57

Hussein Al-alak, The Iraq Solidarity Campaign

A member of Indymedia UK has kindly responded to the article Indymedia Censors Attacks on Iraqi Artists, which is about the removal of an article from their website and is relating to attacks against Iraqs artistic community, by sectarian death squad militias.

The statement by Indymedia was left on the comments section of Iraqi Solidarity News (Al-Thawra), and even though Indymedia did take down the Observer article "Iraqi artists and singers flee amid crackdown on forbidden culture", by Afif Sarhan in Baghdad and Caroline Davies, the Iraq Solidarity Campaign has allowed the Indymedia statement to remain on our website as the only articles removed, are ones which are factually innaccurate, abusive or are seeking to incite violence, sectarianism and hatred.

Indymedia write:

"Firstly as your article points out its a corporate media post, widely available on a number of sites. So its hardly censored.Secondly, as you point out - Indymedia is independent media, which doesn't actually mean a repository for articles from the corporate media, and it has editorial guidelines including this one:

Articles and/or comments may be hidden for the following reasons: Reposts: Articles that are simply pasted from corporate news sites. Please write something original, by all means link to articles elsewhere and quote from them but don't just copy them.

Personally I don't see why you think that the article fits in with the Indymedia UK mission statement - but the inferences you have drawn about the reasons that I hid it are way of beam.I have now hidden your spurious claims as "complaint about moderation".

We would like to remind people that the article removed from Indymedia was in relation to real life attacks, which are being carried out against Iraqi artists, which is nothing like the British Governments claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction, in the sense that these attacks against the Iraqi people are infact real.

The article was placed on Indymedia with the purpose of helping to educate the British peace movement about the realities being faced by the Iraqi population, with the hope that such information could assist them in building a real opposition to the occupation of Iraq, which has already killed over one million people and left over four million children orphaned.

As you may remember, the main thrust of the Observer article was as follows:

Cinemas, art galleries, theatres, and concert halls are being destroyed in grenade and mortar attacks in Basra and Baghdad.

According to the Iraqi Artists' Association, at least 115 singers and 65 actors have been killed since the US-led invasion, as well as 60 painters. But the terror campaign has escalated in recent months as both Shia and Sunni extremists grow ever bolder in enforcing religious restrictions on the citizens of Iraq.

Singer Muthana al-Jaffar, 37, from Baghdad, said: 'The government is not giving us any protection. I witnessed two of my friends being killed for singing western songs at weddings. The Shia extremists who killed them shouted that that was the price they had to pay for singing "the devil's words."

The Iraqi Ministry of Culture estimates that about 80 per cent of singers and other artists have now fled.

In November Seif Yehia, 23, was beheaded for singing western songs at weddings, and painter Ibraheem Sadoon was shot dead as he drove through Baghdad.

Culture was encouraged during Saddam Hussein's regime, but no longer.

We are saddened that the Indymedia are unable to publish articles such as "Iraqi artists and singers flee amid crackdown on forbidden culture" by Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies, which does contain disturbing and horrorfying facts, such as those described above and we can only hope, that the British public will never experience the attrocities, which have been described by the Observer, attrocities which were infact brought to Iraq as a direct result of the British Government.

Read the article on Iraqi Solidarity News (Al-Thawra)
http://iraqsolidaritycampaign.blogspot.com/2008/05/artists-flee-crackdow...