Baghdad Closes 8 Satellite TV Stations and 5 Radio Stations

According to the decision, the Board of Trustees of the Media and Communications Authority met last Thursday and decided to close the offices of 8 channels for 3 months, including “Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath” (Saudi Arabia) and “anb” (Lebanese), in addition to 6 localities “NRT” (a network of channels broadcasting from the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq) and "Dajlah" and "Sharqiah" and "Fallujah" and "Arrashid" and "Huna Baghdad."

The Commission also decided to close the offices of five radio stations, including the two radio stations "Al Hurra Iraq" and "Sawa" and the local three "Radio Annas" and "Radio Alyaum" and "Noa".

Five other satellite channels have been alerted, including the UAE's Sky News and four local ones: Alsumaria, Asia, Rudaw and Uur.

They also decided to extend the closure of the office of the American channel "Free Iraq" for another three months.

They explained that these decisions came after the "violation" of those satellite channels and broadcasts "codes of professional conduct", without mentioning what exactly those violations are.

The media outlets have offices or headquarters in the capital Baghdad and most have offices in other provinces of the country, especially local television channels.