Iraqi Journalists Look Forward to $20 Salary

Iraqi journalists, who suddenly found themselves in the same vacuum as the Iraqi people and who had concerns for the future after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, think this salary will provide relief, even if only a little. "First pressure and now poverty and fear have destroyed Iraqi journalists," said Samira Sakir, a photojournalist with al-Cumhuriyet newspaper, adding that Iraq’s own newspapers have not been printed in Baghdad since April 8.

The people of Baghdad, who had four daily official gazettes, an official journal and 12 private newspapers, nowadays are reading newspapers published outside the country. Nearly 2,000 veterans of these newspapers were writing in their notebooks as if they were still employed after meeting in front of the looted and burned newspaper buildings.

Fatih Ugur / Bagdat (Baghdad) / IRAQ