Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Baghdad, May 8, (VOI) – U.S. and Iraqi forces closed on Thursday the Sadr movement’s al-Ahad radio station’s office, and stopped its broadcast, at orders from the Iraqi government, said the station’s manager.

“An Iraqi-U.S. force stopped al-Ahad radio station’s broadcast, according to a memo that carried Premier Nouri al-Maliki’s signature,” Abid Abu-Zahra told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

“The force did not show a legal memo to stop the station,” he said.

“This step made by the government is a dangerous measure that deprives people from the voice that represents their pains,” he added.

Al-Ahad radio station, located in al-Baladiyat neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, was established in 2006, and followers of the Sadr movement represent the wide audience of the station’s broadcast that covers the Iraqi capital, supported by offices at a number of Iraq’s provinces.

He called on media companies and the government to reconsider the station’s programming, because “it does not call for violence, but for peace as a replacement education for violence.”

“Government’s claim that the station’s office occupies a state-owned property is incorrect, as we rented this place for 10 years from the Trade Union,” he said.
“The station will employ peaceful methods, and will resort to the judiciary and parliament to settle the issue,” he noted.

From its side, the Sadrist bloc at the Iraqi parliament had a press conference on Thursday noon, criticizing the U.S. raid operation that targeted al-Ahad radio station’s office.

The conference described stopping the station’s broadcast as handcuffing the freedom of the press.

“This is unprecedented step in pushing on media sources,” Fawzee Akram, a Sadrist lawmaker said in the conference.

He called on the journalists’ syndicate, media and culture parliamentary committee, and journalists’ rights organizations to condemn the raid operation that took place under the pretext that the station “provokes for resistance against the occupation.”

Salih al-Igaili, a Sadrist lawmaker and member of the media and culture parliamentary committee, said in the conference “The raid operation is a clear message to media personnel to silence the truth sound.”

“The committee will work to obtain recommendations that condemn this act,” he added.
VOI contacted U.S. forces’ media counselor regarding this issue, but he said that he had no information.