Norway is “proud to be a partner” of IMS’ programme on religious minorities in Iraq

“The equation of post-2003 Iraq must be based on coexistence, peace, respect for ethnic and religious diversity and the creation of new laws, legislations and culture that support this diversity because it is important at this stage,” said Luqman Faily, spokesman of the President of the Republic Mr. Barham Salih, in his speech at The Conference of Iraqi media and coverage of religious minorities, held on 21 January, 2019 at the Babylon Hotel in Baghdad.

The conference was organised by IMS and was attended by government officials, parliamentarians and representatives of European and American diplomatic missions, EU and UN institutions in Iraq.

“The President of Iraq invites you to continue this approach to achieve fair results that serve the religious minorities in Iraq and support the discovery and enrichment of the truth,” Luqman Faily said with address to IMS.

Building a culture of religious pluralism

The leaders of the various religious groups in Iraq support the call of the Iraqi President.

the leader of Mandaean religion in Iraq and the world, Sheikh Sattar Jabbar al-Helou, pointed out that lack of knowledge is a challenge for all religious minorities in Iraq.

“Religious minorities in Iraq are complaining about the neglect of the local media to cover activities of them, and there is a common ignorance about other religions in Iraq than Islam due to the existence of the school curricula that lead to religious intolerance against other religious minorities,” he said and stressed the need to combat the language of hatred and violence based on religious intolerance by some media outlets in Iraq.

The Chaldean Catholic Church said that state media have started covering religious minority issues and mentioned that despite the fatwa not allowing Muslims to celebrate Christmas and New Year (issued a couple of years ago by Iraq’s Muslim religious leader) more than 4 million Baghdadi citizens celebrated New Year’s Eve this last December. State media also featured the celebrations.

Iraq state media also covered when the Vatican’s Pop Francis made Iraq Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako a Cardinal on 28 June 2018, making Sako the first Iraqi in the Vatican.

Mr. Saib Khedr, Yazidi community representative in Parliament, complained that Iraqi media only cover Yazidis as victims of terror, not as part of the cultural and religious heritage of Iraq.

“When Iraqi media address us as Iraqis, not as Yazidi Iraqis, or as victims of Islamic State Terror, we will feel that the State of Iraq is a state for all Iraqis, not only for specific religious groups,” he said

The need to build a culture of religious pluralism in Iraq and to make media a platform for all minorities was stressed by Osama Hababe, manager of IMS’ Iraq programme:

“We are trying to ensure that the media is free and democratic, expressing everyone in Iraq, so we do not wish to see that the Iraqi media are only serving specific groups but serving all citizens of all ethnic and religious entities.”

“Proud to be a partner”

From the Royal Embassy of Norway, the chargé d’affaires, Mr. Roar Haugsdal, underlined that it is imperative to create a comprehensive environment for respect for religious minorities and that the media play a key role in this area and that freedom of information and freedom of belief are essential in democratic societies. He noted the importance of the Conference at the current stage in Iraq and the need to involve qualified journalists from religious minorities in media organizations and added:

“International Media Support, IMS, is one of the first organisations to have done studies on the role of media in Iraqi society and we are proud to be a partner.”

Listen to the speech of Mr. Roar Haugsdal at YouTube.

The religious conference in Baghdad ended with a series of recommendations:

• The Iraqi Government should adopt a policy of encouraging government media to disseminate materials about minorities and highlight religious diversity, coexistence between communities and the ethnic diversity in Iraq, as well as adopting policies that allow minorities access to the Public Service Broadcasters (PSB) and urge those stations to devote airtime to minority languages.
• The need for local media to move away from hate speech against minorities, to host peacemakers and boycott hate advocates in media outlets, and to urge the Commission for Media and Communications’ (CMC) authority to play its role in this field and monitor hate speech in media
• Training of media on how to address religious minority issues and training of journalists on how to cover those minorities and provide award prizes for the best reports in this field.

The conference announced that a follow up committee will be established to follow up on the implementation of the recommendations. The committee will include representatives from media stakeholders, religious minorities and IMS in Iraq as well as officials from media authorities like CMC and the Iraqi Media Network.