IRAQ. The current situation in Iraq hardly gives any reason for solace. But on the brighter side, the printing sector in the country has been evolving ever since the ousting of the old regime. Iraqi newspapers, the Al Mada newspaper, Baghdad, and the Azzaman newspaper (Iraqi Edition) talk about their functioning in the country which has attracted world attention for all the wrong reasons.

The Al Mada newspaper, which was established in July 2003, to meet the increasing demand of newspapers in Iraq, is printed in 16 pages, the first and the last pages being in colour. It sometimes publishes supplements in colour as well. Al Mada Al Riyadhi (sports weekly) which is published every Monday consists of 12 pages of which four are in colour. Al Mada also brings out an 80 page, unique colour magazine for women called ‘Narjes’ which is the largest publication dealing with affairs of women in Iraq.

According to Abdul Zahra Zaki, Editorial Manager, Al Mada: “Al Mada is an independent newspaper, which had been established in April 2003 by the owner Fakhri Kareem. The newspaper is being printed by Al Mada Establishment to whom the newspaper belongs to. It has sections for local, international, political news, cultural, business, entertainment and sports news alongside reports addressing Arab and international issues.” 

“Around 60 staff employees are currently working for the newspaper” says Zaki. “We produce the articles, news and do the layout of the newspaper by using personal computers and then we send it to the print house.”

“The newspaper is only circulated in Iraq at the moment. It is distributed everywhere in Iraq daily. It is distributed in Baghdad in the morning and in other parts of Iraq in the afternoon. However, there are many difficulties facing this operation, one of which is transportation. On the other hand, there are days when we cannot produce the paper at all. Like recently, there was a four-day curfew in Baghdad and because of that we weren’t able to produce the newspaper at all” he says.

Ghada Al Amili, General Manager of Technical of Al Mada Establishment, says that there are many difficulties facing Iraq’s print sector such as high insurance rates on imported raw material. Importing uninsured material is risky because of the high risk of loss due to the goods either being lost or robbed on the road to Baghdad. Furthermore, the lorries that transport the goods are not well maintained. The high amount of taxes are imposed at ports and at borders furthermore increases the cost, and the percentage of damage sometimes reaches between 6% to 10% of the total.
          
“Currently, none of the newspapers in Iraq are censored because of which everyday we have a new newspaper coming out,” says Zaki. “Advertising is one of the major factors, if not the most influential, which our newspaper relies on. We receive ads from both government and public sectors. Our main advertising customers include commercial companies who place ads on deals, as well as telecommunication companies offering mobile services (such as Asia Cell and MTC Atheer)."

When asked about the future for colour newspapers in Iraq, he said: "We are thinking of going in for full colour printing of the newspaper. But the worsened circumstances in Iraq prevent us from bringing in new machines.”

But in spite of this, he says, “The newspaper business in Iraq is stable. There is a relatively stable demand on newspapers though it is somehow related to the situation in Iraq.”

Azzaman newspaper was established in London on 10 April 1997 by the Owner and Editor-in-Chief, Saad Al Bazzaz. In 2003, it was published for the first time in Iraq in two editions. The first edition of the newspaper came out on 8 April 2003, just one day before the US troops took over Baghdad. That copy was only published and distributed in the Basra Province (Southern Iraq). The second edition came out on 29 April 2003 and it was only being distributed in Baghdad. After a year and a half, the two editions were merged into one edition under the name ‘Iraqi Edition’.

“At our newspaper, we have various departments, such as editorial, reporters, secretarial, photography, management and finance,” says Dr Ahmed Abdul Majeed, Editor-in-Chief, Azzaman Newspaper (Iraqi Edition).

“We have a technical section as well, in which a group of typesetters produce the newspaper by using specialised software on the Macintosh operating system. Also, we have a section in the newspaper specialised in printing and is responsible for running the printing press.”

“Our printing press can produce 10,000 copies per hour. We have recently opted for a made-in-Britain roll offset printing machine of the Urganite trademark from GOSS. However, we weren’t able to install it yet. We are currently using a similar printing machine of the same type but it has lower specifications. The number of newspaper copies being produced each day is only 50,000 copies. This number is subjected to change according to the security situation in Iraq, especially in the provinces. We distribute our newspaper basically everywhere in Iraq,” he said.

“Our newspaper is run by 96 employees. The newspaper is being printed at our own printing press by Iraqi printers. It has around 20 pages. The first and last pages come out in four colours, whereas the remaining pages come out in two colours. Also, we produce a daily supplement called ‘Azzaman Sports’. Before, we occasionally printed publications for the benefit of ‘Azzaman Strategic Center’ and ‘Shabaad Center for Women Freedom Studies’ (both owned by Azzaman Establishment of which the newspaper belongs to). But the deteriorating security situation forced us to stop these publications.”

“We get our news and photographs through a large network of reporters in Baghdad, Iraqi provinces and other cities. We also subscribe to major international news agencies, such as Reuters, AFP and the German news agency. We are an independent newspaper and we don’t receive any support from the government or from any organisations.”

“We mainly rely on distribution and advertising for funding the newspaper. There’s a lack of international advertisement because investments are not running in Iraq at the moment. However, our main advertisers are local companies and establishments of the private sector, as well as the government sector.”

“We had an ambition to take Azzaman to the international level when it comes to quality of printing and editorial. We had planned that after two years of its first publication, we would print 250,000 copies of the newspaper. But the security situation in Iraq has posed hindrances to turning this into reality. However, we are keeping our fingers crossed to see a stabilised Iraq so that we can achieve our goals," Majeed adds.

“I believe that the security situation has impacted all sectors especially the printing sector. Iraqi printers had hoped to boost their investments and to update their printing machines. Now that each printer is threatened, killed or kidnapped, most of the very skilled and best printers are residing in Amman.

"However, the situation in Iraq has not impeded some newspapers to opt for new technology such as CTP machines, which has definitely eased the transferring of information to printing plates. Now most of the daily newspapers have a CTP," says Majeed.

In addition, Azzaman Establishment publishes other publications. it has one publication in London, and other publication in Bahrain, Syria and Jordan. ‘Azzaman al Jadeed’, a monthly magazine and ‘Alef Yaa’, a quarterly cultural journal, are published by Azzaman Establishment.

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