BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's prime minister warned television stations Wednesday against broadcasting reports that incite violence, saying he will not hesitate to shut them down. The statement by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Iraq's parliament came amid an increase of biased reporting by Shiite and Sunni television stations that focus on the suffering of their communities—often with little mention of the other.
"Television channels, mosques, journalism, and people in the streets are all inciting in a way that this present government cannot control," al-Maliki said.
"We have informed some satellite television stations that we will shut them down if they do not stop inciting sectarianism, even if these channels are Iraqi and belong to a particular party," al-Maliki said without mentioning names.
In August 2004, the government closed the Baghdad news office of Al- Jazeera television, accusing the station of inciting violence. The office is still closed but the station operates in the Kurdish-ruled area of the north.
"Yesterday, when I was in Kurdistan, the Al-Jazeera correspondent asked me a question. But I told him that I will not reply because we have position against Al-Jazeera," al-Maliki said. "I blame my brothers in Kurdistan to allow Al-Jazeera to work although it is banned from that because it incites sectarianism day and night in Iraqi circles."
In November 2003, the U.S.-appointed Governing Council banned the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television station from reporting from Baghdad after it aired an audio tape said to be from Saddam Hussein, who was still at large then.
The station was allowed to resume its work shortly afterward.
