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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8313-2004Jan11.html

U.S. Firm to Run Iraqi TV
Harris Corp. Also to Operate National Newspaper
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 12, 2004; Page A13

The Pentagon has awarded a $96 million contract to a U.S. communications
equipment maker to run Saddam Hussein's old television and radio network,
now called al-Iraqiya, for the next 12 months, the chairman of the company
said last week.

Harris Corp., based in Melbourne, Fla., will operate the national newspaper
formerly run by Hussein's son Uday, in addition to running the broadcast
network, said Howard L. Lance, chairman of the company.

When Hussein's government fell in April, the state-run broadcast stations
and newspaper were seized. In the months since, they have been run by a U.S.
defense contractor, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC).

Under SAIC direction, the stations have not drawn viewers and listeners
because their content was considered too pro-United States. In addition,
there has been turnover in the non-Iraqi management and turmoil within the
Iraqi staff, many of whom were holdovers from the previous dispensation. The
day before Hussein was captured last month, 30 Iraqi reporters and producers
were fired, and al-Iraqiya did not get the news of his arrest on the air for
almost 24 hours.

Lance said last week he and two partners hope soon "to have up and running a
high-quality news and entertainment network."

The partners are the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. (LBC) and a Kuwaiti
publishing and telecommunications company, Al-Fawares. Harris will manage
the project and supply the equipment. LBC will be the source of the
electronic programming and will conduct training.

Running the newspaper and training its journalists will be handled by
Al-Fawares, which publishes a newspaper in Kuwait and prints Newsweek in
Arabic.

Although the Pentagon contract runs for a year, there is some question about
what will happen to the newspaper and stations -- collectively known as the
Iraq Media Network (IMN) -- when the Coalition Provisional Authority turns
over sovereignty to a new Iraq government, scheduled for July 1. Lance said
last week he did not know what was going to happen, but he pledged to make
the network a "high-quality" organization, whether it becomes state-run or
remains under Pentagon control after July.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,
recently voiced concern about the U.S. media program in Iraq and
specifically about the IMN. He has told the White House he expects the State
Department to take responsibility for supervising the IMN after July 1.

"We don't want U.S. taxpayers paying $100 million for some new Iraqi
government over there to take over," Mark Helmke, a senior aide to Lugar on
the committee, said last week. "The chairman wants to make sure that the new
contract leads to an independent, free press."

Dorrance Smith, a former ABC News producer and an adviser to President Bush
and President George H.W. Bush, works in Baghdad as a senior media adviser
to the coalition authority. He recently added the IMN to his
responsibilities, according to Washington and Baghdad government sources.

Smith's first job in Iraq was to create a 24-hour television feed for local
U.S. television stations, bypassing the networks, which U.S. officials
complained were emphasizing negative news from Iraq.

The former Hussein network is not the only Iraq media project being run by
the U.S. government. The authorities, using money generated by Iraqi oil
sales, are working to set up an FM radio station south of Baghdad within 30
days to compete with local religious broadcasters. It is the latest move in
the broader, sometimes faltering, effort to present the viewpoints of the
United States and the provisional authority.

The U.S. regional coordinator for south-central Iraq is looking for a
contractor to build the station, to be housed in a religious university at
Al Hillah. The FM outlet will provide "a means of promoting CPA aims and
coalition information," along with "democratic education, vocational
education . . . [and] public service broadcasting services," according to a
request for proposals published recently. The CPA would "identify Iraqi
personnel for training" at the station, the request said.

The proposed Al Hillah university station has drawn bids from companies in
Cyprus, Sweden, Germany and the United States. It is not the only one
planned in the region, which one official described as "a hotbed of Shia
religious activity." There has been talk of possibly placing another one in
the local women's center to give women a voice, a CPA official said

Meanwhile, the U.S. board that runs the Voice of America and Radio Sawa, an
Arabic-language entertainment and news channel, is moving to set up
land-based television broadcast stations in Baghdad and Basra. They will
carry the programming of its new Middle East satellite channel, which is set
to begin operating next month.

In its recent contract proposal, the Broadcasting Board of Governors said it
is "particularly noteworthy that the urgent establishment of BBG TV
broadcasting systems in Iraq is a top U.S. government priority." The board
said it wants the Baghdad station running by the end of next month and the
Basra station operating by March 22.

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