‘The internet is a necessary part of modern life for many people. There are only disturbance for the centers calling for free internet use which suffer plenty of harassment by "religious gangs""

Ghassan Shamkhy, Director of Sada Center for Human Development (SCHD)

Email to The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information

General Overview:

The population of Iraq is approximately 29 million.

Internet and Telecommunications Sector

The general situation in Iraq, including telecommunications and the internet is complex and can be divided into two phases. The first phase is when the internet began operating in Iraq in the late 1990s under strict central control under Saddam Hussein. The other phase is the post Anglo-American war era and their subsequent occupation of Iraq which continues despite the existence of an elected government. The evaluation of the level of freedom is rather difficult since initially there was an oppressive regime that prohibited the free navigation of the internet, yet now there is more freedom to browse the internet but there is no security for the people.

The figures announced by head of the Iraqi National Communication and Media Commission; Dr. Syamend Othman painted a clear picture of the situation. He said that the number of Internet users in Iraq increased from 21,500 users in 2001 to approximately 120,000 users in 2004. He also predicted a massive growth of 500% (1) in the use of internet in the next five years in Iraq. In all cases, these figures show serious weaknesses in the current infrastructure of Iraqi telecommunications network, which is to be expected due to the current situation.

Following the military invasion of Iraq there was a greater focus on the construction of mobile phone networks in order to allow the citizens to overcome the problems caused by the destruction of terrestrial phone lines. In October 2003, three Middle Eastern companies were licensed to establish mobile phone networks in Iraq. They were Asia Cell Telecommunications Company (Asia Cell), Orascom Telecom (Orascom), Atheer Telecom (Atheer). These companies were entitled to provide the services for northern, central, and southern Iraq respectively (2). These divisions were much similar to the political future of Iraq.

In February 2004, the Egyptian Orascom Company cooperated with the French Alcatel company to operate the very first mobile phone network in Iraq. Afterwards, the other two companies started to provide their services (3). Shortly after the services started operating the citizens were outraged by the high prices and bad services. Such problems with cellular phone companies reveal the chaos of the telecommunications sector in Iraq because although these companies are supposed to be working under the direct supervision of the independent Public Authority for Telecommunications and Media the supervision is clearly not being provided.

Although the internet may now be used from private homes under the new regime, the prices are still so high that ordinary citizen cannot afford it. The governmental company providing ADSL service charges users with US$ 100 per month for the speed of 64KB in addition to other expenses amounted to US$ 300 for connection (4).

The political chaos in Iraq has deeply influenced internet market. Though Iraq recently got an online country symbol (.iq) it is considered largely as a symbolic measure. There is no official information about the companies who provide private internet service provision, or their relationship with the Ministry of Telecommunication or the acts and laws regulating their work. Some foreign companies capitalize on this situation such as the American Hughes company and the Russian Soyuz company which have established a hold on the satellite dish market and have started to sell internet access service to the flourishing interent café market. The subscription cost of these companies is much higher than the official service provided by the government. However, they are widely used because of the high quality of their devices and regular maintenance (5).

In addition to the attempts of facilitating Iraqis' access to internet, The Public Company for World Wide Web Services recently launched a new project named "WWB" which aims to provide wireless internet services to ministries and governmental departments in Baghdad. The service includes VoIP, and Video Conference services which are not yet available for ordinary Iraqi citizen (6).

Bloggers

Iraqi bloggers are very active. An Iraqi blog by an Iraqi citizen who uses the pseudonym Salam Pax achieved international fame when it first appeared in June 2002 and gained its popularity by describing in minute the details of the sufferings of Iraqi citizens during the brutal American attacks on Baghdad. The blog was a rare source of such information. At the end of war, this blog was republished in a printed book in English (7).

In 2004 there were more than 30 bloggers in Baghdad in addition to other bloggers writing from outside Iraq. The most famous among these blogs is "A Family in Baghdad Blog" (afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com) which first appeared in December 2003 and was written by an Iraqi family reporting on the daily life in Baghdad. We believe that the number of blogs has increased since that time with the spread of internet service in Iraq. Some of the blog aggregators can be accessed through http://iraqblogcount.blogspot.com or http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/iraqi_blogs/index.html

Censorship and Website Blocking

The Internet Under Saddam Hussein

When internet services entered Iraq the internet it was forbidden for citizens to use the internet at home and it was only available at governmental Public Internet Centers. Furthermore the sole internet provider was Uruklink which was owned by the Ministry of Culture and Information. This made it very easy for the government to control every aspect of what its citizens could see on the internet (8).

Through these public cafes, preprogrammed software and devices were used to block certain websites including those of opponents and the website of the singer Kadhem El-Saher. When these websites were accessed a black page appeared with words in red warning the user against proceeding (9).

After a while Saddam allowed post-graduate access to the internet at home for six hours after midnight. They were given tow websites which provided email services. Their emails were delivered to them after one day (10). A student mentioned that the only available café in the Technology University at the era of Saddam Hussein carried signs with "ACCESS TO ISLAMIC, PORNOGRAPHIC, AND POLITICAL WEBSITES IS NOT ALLOWED" (11)

Despite the small number of governmental internet cafés available at that time the government appointed 400 to 500 persons to run these cafés. This aimed to completely control the internet in order to push café visitors into accessing the "right websites" from the point of view of the government.

Post-Invasion of Iraq

After the US forces captured Baghdad the USA, as the occupying power, took control of all telecommunication systems. In the immediate aftermath of the invasion no data or information concerning censorship of the internet was available given that information exchange was a sensitive issue (12).

Now more than three years into the occupation, the situation is still not entirely clear. The reports coming from inside Iraq unanimously agree on the existence of internet censorship but also agree that it is not as strict as it was under Saddam.

HRinfo has received a large number of emails from Iraqi citizens which make claims about the current status of the freedom of the internet under the American occupation. These emails have included the claims that:

- It is the internet cafés owners who impose the censorship (13).

- Though there are many problems in browsing the internet, these can be solved easily (14).

- Censorship is imposed by the internet cafes owners, particularly in southern Iraq through certain programs which detect some websites, particularly pornographic, liberal, and secular websites (such as communist and terrorist websites) (15).

- Another mentioned the phenomenon of religious scholars who launch campaigns against internet users who waste their time at the internet cafés and do not go for prayers and that consequently the cafés are considered as morally corrupting (16).

- Some websites advocating human rights are blocked as one Iraqi who was trying to research human rights could not (17).

- There are problems because of the blocking of news websites which reveals the current and recent incidents in Iraq (18).

Of course not all the claims above can be verified but there sheer number and diversity shows that despite the difference between the current and the previous internet conditions in Iraq, the problem of blocked websites persists. Given the continuing occupation of Iraqi it is difficult to hold the Iraqi government liable for what is happening especially given the chaos that has spread all over Iraq. The most serious aspect is that the reports that assert there is an increase of the control of religious scholars that allowed them to censor the internet in the absence of the Iraqi ruling authority.

The oppressive practices by security forces in Iraq did not end with the fall of Saddam's regime. The Iraqi blogger Khaled Garar reported that in July 2005, university guards arrested him while he was using a computer at the university. When he asked why he was arrested they declared that the reason was because he was ‘printing the websites that he visited'. They also accused him of "browsing terrorist websites" and "contacting foreign terrorists".

The guards asked Khaled about the content of the foreign websites he was visiting although none of them knew English. He was then detained for several days before a judge set him free. However, he spent more several days in prison. He was finally freed after signing a pledge not to tell the families of the prisoners he met in prison about where they were being held (19).

The most basic problem facing internet users in Iraq has nothing to do with censorship or blocked websites but with their day to day security. US and Iraqi forces regularly raid houses and internet cafes to search them. If some one is arrested, their computer is confiscated immediately.

The Kurdish writer Kamal Sayed Kader who lived in Austria was arrested upon his return to Iraq by Arbiel security forces and was accused of publishing essays at some electronic websites (20). Kamal was tried in December 2005 by the Second Criminal Court in Arbiel. He was charged with defamation because of his online posts criticizing the leadership of the Kurdish Democratic Party which is one of the two parties ruling the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Kader was convicted despite his denied the charge announced against him. He was then sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, appeal court refused the sentence award and referred the case to misdemeanor court in Arbiel for re-trail him. On 26 March 2006, the court sentenced him for 18 months in clear violation of his right to free speech (21).

Iraqi armed groups use the internet heavily as an alternative media to spread their message, operations and statements. This phenomenon is increasing and consequently it is considered as a chase between Americans and Iraqi armed groups. The members of Al-Qaeda working in Iraq uses the internet for as an alternative media means to promote its activities especially after the traditional news channels limited the coverage of such activities. This led US occupation forces in Iraq to do its best to stop such activity. However, the US forces found it difficult to prosecuting web hosts as the armed groups moved their sites from one hosting company to another (22).

In this context, the US forces closed all internet cafes in Anbar province, a few months ago, claiming that they are used by armed groups to post their press releases and to contact their supporters inside and outside Iraq. The army used to resort to continuous raid of these centers before deciding to close them. Any café owner may be arrested with the charge of receiving armed groups members and supporting their activities (23). An internet café owner in Al-Fallujah city reported that four armed men attacked his house and forced him to open the café for them to use the internet and they did not allow him to see what they were doing (24).

Reports of the US Ministry of Defense have asserted that Iraqi armed groups headed by Al-Qaeda use the internet as a vital means to communicate and to publish their statements and footages with the purpose of winning the media war against the United States (25). After the US made such statements the difficulties suffered by Iraqis while using the internet further increased.

Website blocking is not limited to Iraqis alone and in some situations is also applied to US army personnel. In a rare report, The Memory Hole blog mentioned that its website was blocked at US army bases. The blog mentioned that one of the users from inside the US army could not access the blog which posts news about the situation in Iraq. He received a message reading "Access is not allowed" (26). He claimed that the US army is using specialized BlueCoat software to filter and block websites using the database of SmartFilter (27) software which is used by almost all Arab countries.

Internet Cafes

In Iraq internet cafés are the sole place where most Iraqis can access the internet. During Saddam Hussein reign, access to the internet was only available at governmental public internet centers. After the fall of Saddam, despite the difficult economic circumstances internet cafés were permitted.

Pre-Invasion Iraq

In 2002 computer screens at the internet centers were directed away form the wall because governmental officials of the Internet Department were able to censor them while walking up and down. At that time, there were 26 public internet centers in Iraq and there were approximately 200 visitors to these centers per day.

Post- Invasion Iraq

After the fall of Saddam internet cafés in Iraq revived significantly There were already some 150 internet cafés in Baghdad alone in 2004 (28). However, instability and a lack of certainty remain the dominant themes for internet cafés since during the occupation of Iraq.. In order to open an internet café one is supposed to get a license from the government internet corporation. However, the corporation regularly refuses to grant any license for any new café. Therefore, most people ignore the official procedures and rely on the lack of government control and its inability to apply the law and continue as if the procedures did not exist (29).

One internet café owner said that when he tried to obtain official license the Ministry of Transportation required him to go back to the Public Corporation. When he did so, corporation officials told him to contact Americans. Another owner said that the corporation rejected his license application claiming that he did not have an appropriate receiver device. However, the warehouse where the government stores the official recognized equipment had been looted and all the equipment stolen. After long negotiations, the officer agreed on one condition which was that the owner must purchase the receiver device from a of the friends of the official (30). These cases show that the market is not properly regulated or controlled and that corruption is flourishing in the chaos.

However despite the general trend which has seen a massive increase in the number of internet cafés the picture is not uniform and often changes rapidly in the security and political chaos. Thus for example there was decrease in the number of cyber cafes in Tikrit city from 14 to only 4 cyber cafes. It was claimed that the reason for this was the bad telecommunication service which excludes the visitors. That is in addition to the increase in maintenance costs, but it seems as if other factor play a prominent role. In the case of Tikrit it has been claimed that the US forces cut the lines.

The absence of the state control and the sense of freedom after such long years of oppression means that the café owner now feel free to operate their cafés as they like. Many internet cafes now have isolated rooms and corners which enable the users to navigate websites with more freedom, unlike the case under the previous regime (31). Also, some owners have added wooden barriers to separate between computers (32).

There is no registration of names within the cafes and there are no special means of control (33). However, most of the cafes are small and have areas that have no booths to isolate users. The cafes which do register names are limited to the registration of the first name for financial accounts purposes only, and there is no political control.

The most serious violation revealed in the testimonies of citizens inside Iraq concerning internet cafés is the harassment suffered by employees and owners of the cafes by religious extremists. A citizen reported that some cafes in the regions are dominated by the religious groups and there are banners warning visitors from entering secular websites (34). The internet cafés which allow free access to pornographic websites get burnt and damaged by the "religious gangs" (35).Sometimes, the owners of the cyber cafes are assassinated because they refuse to block immoral websites (36).

The only censorship is that imposed by the cafes owners. Some of them use programs that prevent access to certain websites (37). Most of the cafes put cautions up warning users against accessing pornographic, Israeli, or terrorist websites (38). An internet café owner mentioned that due to technological development, cafes supervisors are able to close pornographic websites. There are censorship and control programs as well which enable the supervisor to access any of the computers used inside the café.

The most serious obstacle facing Iraqi Internet café users is being caught between armed groups and police forces and the Americans. The latest harassment of this kind took place in the city of Baghdad after an armed group disguised in police uniform launched a campaign to close internet centers in a number of streets of the Iraqi capital, in July 2006. The police arrested their owners with the charge of association with the armed groups. In addition to these campaigns, cafes owners are threatened by unidentified sources to close their shops. An internet café owner identified these "sources" as militias linked to government parties.

In the post-Saddam era, internet cafes have spread all over Iraq and are visited by both men and women despite the difficult circumstances. However, they are not satisfying for the vast number of visitors. Women first visited cyber cafes in Baquba city despite the fact that the majority of fathers refuse to let their daughters go to such places (39). The same situation is witnessed in the religious Karbala city. Many women there visit internet cafes with their female friends and relatives (40).

Many women and youth considered the internet a new means to establish friendships and relationships under the circumstances of low standard of living and the deterioration of the security situation and the phenomenon of spinsterhood (41).
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1-Announcing the launching of Iraqi online symbol, Almada newspaper, http://www.almadapaper.com/sub/11-542/p01.htm (visited on 11 September 2006 )
2-Reporters without Boarders, Internet under Surveillance, Iraq , http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10735 (visited on 12 July 2006 )
3-Reporters without Boarders, Internet under Surveillance, Iraq , http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10735 (visited on 12 July 2006 )
4-Uruk Link website, services web page, http://www.uruklink.net/uruk/services_1.htm#8 (visited on 30 July 2006 )
5-Hesham Kareem Elwan, Internet requires Curved methods, Institute for War and Peace Press, http://www.iwpr.net/?apc_state=heniicr2004&l=ar&s=f&o=168575 (visited on 12 August 2006 )
6-Baghdad Wide Web for internet services, http://www.wbb-iraq.com/a_aboutus.htm , visited on 8 September 2006
7-César G. Soriano, Iraqis enjoy new freedom of expression on Web journals, USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-20-bloggers_x.htm (visited on 2 April 2006 )
8-Reporters without Boarders, Internet under Surveillance, Iraq
9- Hesham Kareem Elwan, Internet requires Curved methods, Institute for War and Peace Press, http://www.iwpr.net/?apc_state=heniicr2004&l=ar&s=f&o=168575 (visited on 12 August 2006 )
10- Iraqis navigate the internet without censorship, Arab Encyclopedia for computer and internet, http://www.c4arab.com/showanews.php?nid=953 (visited on 25 August 2006 )
11-Iraqis navigate the internet without censorship, Arab Encyclopedia for computer and internet, http://www.c4arab.com/showanews.php?nid=953 (visited on 25 August 2006 )
12-Reporters without Boarders, Internet under Surveillance, Iraq
13-Shokry Tamer, Iraqi Citizen, 29 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
14-Mohamed, Iraqi Citizen, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
15-Ghassan Shamekhy, an Iraqi citizen, 32 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
16-Ghassan Shamekhy, an Iraqi citizen, 32 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
17-Ghofran, an Iraqi citizen, 28 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
18-Ayed, an Iraqi citizen, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
19-Tell me a Secret, I found myself…,
http://secretsinbaghdad.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-found-myself.html (visited on 30 July 2006 )
20-Shawan, an Iraqi citizen, 32 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
21-Iraq : Judiciary Pursuits threatening the freedom of expression in North Iraq , Amnesty International, http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ARAMDE140162006?open&of=ARA-2MD (visited on 12 June 2006 )
22-Internet became a new battle field between Americans and Iraqi armed groups, Al-Ahram newspaper, 29 March 2005 , pp.5
23-American forces closes cyber cafes in Anbar, Al-Hayat newspaper, issue 15679 , 9/3/2006 , pp.2
24-American forces closes cyber cafes in Anbar, Al-Hayat newspaper, issue 15679 , 9/3/2006 , pp.2
25-American forces closes cyber cafes in Anbar, Al-Hayat newspaper, issue 15679 , 9/3/2006 , pp.2
26-Memory Blog, the Memory Hole Banned in Iraq , http://www.thememoryhole.org/memoryblog/archives/000156.html (visited on 16 June 2006 )
27-Internet Censorship Explorer, Iraq , Memory Holes, Smart Filter,
http://ice.citizenlab.org/?p=20 (visited on 16 June 2006 )
28-Hesham Kareem Elwan, Internet requires Curved methods, Institute for War and Peace Press, http://www.iwpr.net/?apc_state=heniicr2004&l=ar&s=f&o=168575 (visited on 12 August 2006 )
29-Hesham Kareem Elwan, Internet requires Curved methods, Institute for War and Peace Press, http://www.iwpr.net/?apc_state=heniicr2004&l=ar&s=f&o=168575 (visited on 12 August 2006 )
30-Hesham Kareem Elwan, Internet requires Curved methods, Institute for War and Peace Press, http://www.iwpr.net/?apc_state=heniicr2004&l=ar&s=f&o=168575 (visited on 12 August 2006 )
31-Iraqis navigate the internet without censorship, Arab Encyclopedia for computer and internet, http://www.c4arab.com/showanews.php?nid=953 (visited on 25 August 2006 )
32-Galal Hassan, Websites for showing all, http://www.almadapaper.com/sub/05-391/p11.htm (visited on 23 August 2006 )
33-Shokry Tamer, Iraqi Citizen, 29 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
34-Ghassan Shamekhy, an Iraqi citizen, 32 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
35-Ghassan Shamekhy, an Iraqi citizen, 32 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
36-Ghofran, an Iraqi citizen, 28 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
37-Ayed, an Iraqi citizen, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
38-Ghassan Shamekhy, an Iraqi citizen, 32 years old, email to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, responding to research questions
39-More female visitors to cyber cafes in Baquba, http://www.almadapaper.com/sub/04-647/p02.htm (visited on 5 July 2006 )
40-Khloud Al-Ammery, Iraqi Cyber cafes are open to women too, http://www.ehcconline.org/information_center/wmview.php?ArtID=1014 (visited on 29 May 2006 )
41-Internet addiction spreads between Iraqi youth, Islamic Network, http://www.islamweb.net/ver2/archive/readArt.php?lang=A&id=84596 (visited on 12 July 2006 )