Post-regime-change Afghan and Iraqi media systems: Strategic ambivalence as technology of media governance

Abstract

This article investigates the governance of post-US invasion Afghan and Iraqi media systems by analyzing provisions pertinent to public broadcasting, licensing, and defamation in 14 laws and policy documents in the two nations. The author argues that the results point to a regime of regulatory ambivalence whereby state authorities have established an ontologically incongruent complex of legal and policy structures characterized by a simultaneous cohabitation of democratic and authoritarian tendencies. This ambivalence, born of struggles and contestations between state authorities, domestic civil societies and external supporters and donors, is a deliberate technology of media governance. The authoritarian tendencies of this regulatory regime have implications for media/journalists’ self-regulation as they are designed to curtail the agency of media institutions and journalists, and assert government control over speech and the flow of information.

Keywords

Afghanistan Iraq media governance media system regulatory ambivalence

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Afghanistan Journalists Safety Committee (2015) Freedom of speech and circulation of information in the state-run media of Afghanistan. Available at: http://ajsc.af/Docs/Reports/Freedom-of-speech-Report-English.pdf (accessed 2 May 2018).

Al-Kaisy

(2017) Normalization of war and conflict in Iraq’s Iraqiya television. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 10(2/3): 234–254.

Al-Rawi

(2012) Media Practice in Iraq. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Al-Rawi

(2013) The US influence in shaping Iraq’s sectarian media. International Communication Gazette 75(4): 374–391.

Amos

(2010) Confusion, contradiction and irony: The Iraqi media in 2010. Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Discussion Paper Series D-58, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Available at: https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/4421401 (accessed 17 November 2021).

Ashforth

, et al. (2014) Ambivalence in organizations: A multilevel approach. Organization Science 25(5): 1453–1478.

Awad

Eaton

(2013) The media of Iraq ten years on: The problems, the progress, the prospects. BBC Media Action. Available at: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/policybriefing/bbc_media_action_media_iraq_ten_years_on.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

Barker

(2008) Democracy or polyarchy? US-funded media developments in Afghanistan and Iraq post 9/11. Media, Culture & Society 30(1): 109–130.

Bjelica

(2016) No microphone for the president: Can Radio Television Afghanistan still become a public service broadcaster. Afghanistan Analysts Network. Available at: https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/no-microphone-for-the-president-can-radio-television-afghanistan-still-become-a-public-service-broadcaster/ (accessed 17 November 2021).

10.

Cary

(2012) An explosion of news: The state of media in Afghanistan. Center for International Media Assistance. Available at: https://www.cima.ned.org/resource/an-explosion-of-news-the-state-of-media-in-afghanistan/ (accessed 17 November 2021).

11.

Chandler

Munday

(2016) Public service broadcasting. In: A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191800986.001.0001/acref-9780191800986-e-2205 (accessed 17 November 2021).

12.

Coalition Provisional Authority-Order Number 65: Iraqi Communication and Media Commission (2004). Available at: https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/cpa-iraq/regulations/20040320_CPAORD65.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

13.

Coalition Provisional Authority-Order Number 66: Iraq Public Service Broadcasting (2004). Available at: https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/cpa-iraq/regulations/20040320_CPAORD66.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

14.

Committee to Protect Journalists (2009) CPJ, JFO cite press freedom abuses in Iraq. Available at: https://cpj.org/2009/06/cpj-jfo-cite-press-freedom-abuses-in-iraq.php (accessed 17 November 2021).

15.

Council on Foreign Relations (2020) A conversation with Abdullah Abdullah. Available at: https://www.cfr.org/event/conversation-abdullah-abdullah-0 (accessed 17 November 2021).

16.

Eide

Khalvatgar

Shirzad

(2019) Afghan journalists in a balancing act: Coping with deteriorating security. Conflict & Communication 18(1): 1–16.

17.

Elbeshbishi

Lee

(2021) Amid Taliban takeover, fear Afghanistan’s media landscape will ‘disappear’. USA Today. Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/22/taliban-takeover-fears-afghan-journalists-could-targets/8211430002/ (accessed 17 November 2021).

18.

Freedman

(2008) The Politics of Media Policy. Cambridge: Polity Press.

19.

Freedom House (2016) Iraq: Freedom in the world. Available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/576be00ac.html (accessed 17 November 2021).

20.

Guy

(1997) Production of Culture/Cultures of Production. London: Sage.

21.

Hallin

Mancini

(2004) Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

22.

Hamelink

Nordenstreng

(2007) Towards democratic media governance. In Bens

(ed.) Media between Culture and Commerce. Bristol: Intellect, 225–240.

23.

Human Rights Watch (2020) ‘We might call you in at any time’: Free speech under threat in Iraq. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2020/06/Iraq0620_web.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

24.

Ismail

(2018) The right of criticism and defamation crime in media: Iraq and US as a case study. Global Media Journal 16(30): 1–6.

25.

Issawi

(2020) Egyptian journalists and the struggle for change following the 2011 uprising: The ambiguous journalistic agency between change and conformity. International Communication Gazette 82(7): 628–645.

26.

Kim

(2010) Forces of gatekeeping and journalists' perceptions of physical danger in post-Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 87(3/4): 484–500.

27.

Kim

Hama-Saeed

(2008) Emerging media in peril: Iraqi journalism in the post-Saddam Hussein era. Journalism Studies 9(4): 578–594.

28.

Klimkiewicz

(2010) Introduction to structural media pluralism. International Journal of Communication 4: 906–913.

29.

Kraidy

(2011) The emergent supranational Arab media policy sphere. In: Mansell

Raboy

(eds) The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

30.

McQuail

(2005) McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory. London: Sage.

31.

MEMRI (2016) Iraqi Shi’ite militia leader Qais Khazali: ‘Liberation of Mosul will be in vengeance against the slayers of Hussein’. Available at: https://www.memri.org/tv/iraqi-shiite-militia-leader-qais-khazali-liberation-mosul-will-be-vengeance-against-slayers (accessed 17 November 2021).

32.

Meo

(2004) Afghan court revisits days of the Taliban with ban on cable. The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-court-revisits-days-of-the-taliban-with-ban-on-cable-tv-19691.html (accessed 17 November 2021).

33.

Osman

(2019) Between the White House and the Kremlin: A comparative analysis of Afghan and Tajik media. International Journal of Communication 13: 619–641.

34.

Osman

(2020) Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to you by Foreigners, Warlords and Activists. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

35.

Page

Siddiqi

(2012) The media of Afghanistan: The challenges of transition. BBC Media Action. Available at: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/policybriefing/bbc_media_action_afghanistan_is_in_transition.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

36.

Penal Code [of Afghanistan] (1976) UNHCR. Available at: https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4c58395a2.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

37.

Pierre

Peters

(2000) Governance, Politics and the State. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

38.

Plambeck

Weber

(2009) CEO ambivalence and responses to strategic issues. Organization Science 20(6): 993–1010

39.

Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq (2019) Chief of municipality of Dhiqar files lawsuit against journalist. Available at: https://pfaa-iq.com/?p=2940 (accessed 17 November 2021).

40.

Price

Griffin

al-Marashi

(2007) Toward an understanding of media policy and media systems in Iraq: A foreword and two reports. CGCS Occasional Paper Series. Available at: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/59/ (accessed 17 November 2021).

41.

Puppis

(2010) Media governance: A new concept for the analysis of media policy and regulation. Communication, Culture & Critique 3(2): 134–149.

42.

Relly

Zanger

(2017) The enigma of news media development with multi-pronged ‘capture’: The Afghanistan case. Journalism 18(10): 1233–1255.

43.

Relly

Zanger

Fahmy

(2015) News media landscape in a fragile state: Professional ethics perceptions in a post-Ba’athist Iraq. Mass Communication and Society 18(4): 471–497.

44.

Ricchiardi

(2011) Iraq’s media after Saddam: Liberation, repression, and future prospects. Center for International Media Assistance. Available at: http://www.cima.ned.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CIMA-Iraq_News_Media-Report_1.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

45.

Salaam Times (2017) New Afghan law targets terrorism, extremism online. Available at: https://afghanistan.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_st/features/2017/07/11/feature-01 (accessed 17 November 2021).

46.

Samandary

(2013) A ‘jihad on the media’? Afghan journalists face the storm in insecure legal waters. Afghanistan Analysts Network. Available at: https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/reports/rights-freedom/a-jihad-on-the-media-afghan-journalists-face-the-storm-in-insecure-legal-waters/ (accessed 17 November 2021).

47.

Samander

(2003) Fatwa for ‘blasphemy’ journalists. Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Available at: https://iwpr.net/global-voices/fatwa-blasphemy-journalists (accessed 17 November 2021).

48.

Schneider

Schmitter

(2004) Liberalization, transition and consolidation: Measuring the components of democratization. Democratization 11(5): 59–90.

49.

Sibbald

(2021) Iraqi parliament suspends draconian cybercrimes bill. Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/07/iraq-parliament-suspends-draconian-cybercrimes-bill (accessed 1 November 2021).

50.

Sienkiewics

(2016) The Other Air Force: U.S. Efforts to Reshape the Middle Eastern Media since 9/11. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

51.

Sparks

(2011a) Media and transition in Latin America. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 8(2): 3–41.

52.

Sparks

(2011b) South African media in comparative perspective. Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies 32(2): 5–19.

53.

Voltmer

(2013) The Media in Transitional Democracies. Cambridge: Polity.

54.

Waisbord

(2015) Watchdog journalism. The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication 1–5.

55.

Webb

(2014) Media in Egypt and Tunisia: From Control to Transition ? New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

56.

Weber

(2004) Politics as a vocation. In: Owen

Strong

(eds), Livingstone

(trans.): The Vocation Lectures. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing.

57.

Yesil

(2016) Media in New Turkey: The Origins of an Authoritarian Neoliberal State. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.

58.

Zaid

(2016) Public service broadcasting structure and performance in Morocco and the MENA region. In: Rahman

Lowe

(eds) Public Service Media Initiatives in the Global South. Vancouver: Simon Fraser University Library, 40–51.

59.

Codes of Professional Practice of Audio-Visual Media (n.d.). Communications and Media Commission. Available at: http://www.cmc.iq/ar-iq/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/مدونات-ممارسة-المهنة.pdf (accessed 2 May 2018).

60.

General Guidelines (2009) Communications and Media Commission. Available at: https://www.cmc.iq/ar-iq/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/generalsteering.pdf (accessed 2 May 2018).

61.

Law of Amending the Penal Code Number 111 for year 1969 (2008). Available at: http://iraqld.hjc.iq/LoadLawBook.aspx?SC=310520101596884 (accessed 17 November 2021).

62.

Law of First Amendment to the Law of the Iraqi Media Network, No. 26, 2015 (2017), Iraqi Parlia-ment. Available at: https://arb.parliament.iq/archive/2017/04/03/-القراءة-الاولىلقانون-التعديل-الاول-ل/ accessed 17 November 2021).

63.

Law of Iraqi Media Network, No. 26 (2015). Iraqi Media Network. Available at: https://imn.iq/قانون-شبكة-الاعلام-العراقي/ (accessed 17 November 2021).

64.

Penal Code [of Iraq], No. 111 (1969), Universitat Zurich. Available at: https://www.rwi.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:00000000-0c03-6a0c-ffff-ffff96be3560/penalcode1969.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

65.

BBC Persian (2013) Controversial election of two new members of Afghanistan’s High Media Council. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/persian/afghanistan/2013/06/130630_k02-afghan-media-council (accessed 17 November 2021).

66.

BBC Persian (2019) The dossier of the prisoner accused of blasphemy has been referred to Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/persian/afghanistan-49876438 (accessed 17 November 2021).

67.

Mass Media Law, No. 983 (2009) Official Gazette. Available at: http://law.acku.edu.af/fa/download/file/fa/26151/60731 (accessed 17 November 2021).

68.

Mass Media Law (2004) Official Gazette. Available at: http://law.acku.edu.af/fa/download/file/fa/24801/49976 (accessed 17 November 2021).

69.

Mass Media Law, No. 116 (2006) Official Gazette. Available at: http://law.acku.edu.af/fa/download/file/fa/24881/53721 (accessed 17 November 2021).

70.

Media Law (2002) Official Gazette. Available at: http://law.acku.edu.af/fa/download/file/fa/30986/70216 (accessed 17 November 2021).

71.

Penal Code [of Afghanistan], No. 1260, (2017) Official Gazette. Available at: http://old.moj.gov.af/Content/files/OfficialGazette/01201/OG_01260.pdf (accessed 17 November 2021).

72.

Shahir

(2019) Evaluating the violations of free media by state commission: How fair are the verdicts? Subhe Kabul. Available at: https://subhekabul.com/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%AF%D8%A8%DB%8C%D8%B1/medias-in-afghanistan/ (accessed 17 November 2021).