Reporters Without Borders denounces the Iraqi interim government’s order to the pan-Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera to close its Baghdad office for a month and is calling for an immediate explanation.
Interior minister Falah al-Naqib declared that the order was aimed at protecting Iraqis and that the government did not want Al-Jazeera or anyone else endangering civil peace in Iraq. The minister had said a few days earlier that some stations were encouraging kidnapping by showing pictures of hostages under threat of execution.