State of their nation: Day 4

State of their nation: Day 4

By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

This coming Saturday, Iraqis go to the polls. They’re choosing regional representatives in 14 out of Iraq’s 18 provinces. There’s little doubt that Iraqis are embracing democracy – the numbers speak for themselves: more than 14,000 candidates vying for just 444 council seats.

Each day this week we’re asking Iraqis what they think about a range of issues.

Look up to the top of buildings in any part of Iraq and the chances are you’ll see a satellite dish. They’re so prolific I’ve heard people jokingly call them “Iraq’s national flower” because they’re blooming everywhere. Compared to six years ago (before the US-lead invasion), Iraqis have an amazing range of news sources to choose from. Broadcasts run the gamut of locally produced TV newscasts in Salah ad Din Province to slick high-end pan-Arab satellite channels like al-Arabiya (where President Obama gave his first post-inaugration interview this week) and Iraq-wide channels like Sharqiyah and Iraqiyah. There are also a number of religious channels and stations run by political parties.

In terms of print media, there’s a wide variety of newspapers on offer: some come weekly, some daily, some support or are printed by a particular political party or religious group, some are printed in Iraq, some overseas. Iraqis buy their papers at road-side vendors.

For today’s “State Of Their Nation” video, we asked people what they thought of the media here, we asked about the dangers facing journalists (the Committee to Protect Journalists lists 114 Iraqi journalists killed here since March 2003, making it one of the most deadly places to report in the world). We also asked people if they thought the media here in Iraq was free and fair.

Watch an hour of news, opinion and debate LIVE from Baghdad on Friday at 10am EST at www.foxnews.com/strategyroom.