Iraq TV boss quits

By Matthew Price BBC correspondent in Baghdad

The demand for news and information by Iraqis is high

The man who took over as the director of Iraqi television after the fall of Saddam Hussein has left his post.

Former exile Ahmad al-Rikabi was appointed by the United States to head the channel and made the first broadcast on 9 April.

He said he resigned because America was not providing enough money for the channel to compete with anti-US propaganda from other Arabic news sources.

Mr Rikabi left his post a few days ago and is now in London, from where he told reporters that the US was losing the propaganda battle in Iraq.

Saddam Hussein is doing better at marketing himself through various Gulf channels, he said.

In recent weeks, audio tapes purportedly from the former Iraqi leader have been run extensively on satellite TV channels in the Gulf.

Mr Rikabi said the people of Iraq were not about to turn against the coalition, but they were being incited to do so.

He said the US needed to put more money into the fledgling Iraqi television service if it was to counter such anti-US propaganda.

Damning stories

The fall of Saddam Hussein's regime has led to an explosion in news and media services.

Baghdad used to have 15 different newspapers. Now, by most estimates, it has well over 100.

Under the former leader it was illegal to have a satellite dish. Now shops can not sell them fast enough, such is the demand for information.

But with this new freedom has come a problem for the coalition.

Some news outlets have published damning stories about the coalition.

Recently, the American in charge of Iraq, Paul Bremer, told local journalists that if they published material which incited people to attack coalition forces they would be punished and their publication shut down.

Some say this is not what the Americans promised when they said they would bring democracy and free speech to Iraq.