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Communication & Information

© UNESCO UK

UNESCO has launched a series of projects dedicated to improving information and communication throughout Iraq, in collaboration with the Iraqi government and the Iraqi media sector, for the purpose of achieving a free and independent media in Iraq.

Since the war began in March 2003, Iraq has become the world’s most dangerous working place for journalists. Media professionals are frequently targeted and killed at alarming rates because of a profession considered as partial or troublesome.

Despite the various dangers, new newspapers, magazines, radio and television channels have sprung up throughout the country. Iraqi media professionals had to start from scratch – filling the vacuum of a state-controlled media sector – to build new organizations under a rule of professionalism based upon principles of independence, transparency and democracy. The nascent plurality of the media sector represents the most important step taken towards a free press in Iraq.

Although an ongoing process is establishing a legal and regulatory framework for a free and independent media sector. Thus, there is a need for:

  • Capacity building at the institutional and professional levels
  • Training on both the technical and professional aspects of journalism
  • Press freedom advocacy and promoting media’s potential contribution to peace and reconciliation

In order to provide such assistance to Iraq, UNESCO’s Communication and Information Programme has developed a series of projects based on a strategy, that focuses on the importance of a free and independent media, within the framework of good governance and constitution building, evolving democratic processes, and national reconciliation.

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