US Military to continue to pay Iraqi media: Casey

Monday March 06th 2006, 9:09 am
Filed under: Newspapers

The US military will continue to pay Iraqi media to publish reports favourable to American forces following an investigation into the controversial practice, Army Gen. George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq said on Friday. The investigation ‘found that we were operating within our authorities and responsibilities,’ he said. Some members of the US Congress raised questions about the payments when it was revealed in December that Iraqi journalists and newspapers were being paid to use articles produced by the military. Casey said he had not issued an order to halt the payments. ‘And, right now, based on the results of the investigation, I do not intend to in the near term,’ he said. The US military has argued it is important to counter what it calls misinformation and propaganda spread by insurgents. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last month that he was mistaken when he stated several days previously that the military had stopped paying Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American articles. (Reuters, ABC News,March 06, 2006)

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.