Iraq to counter media "lies" via YouTube

Iraq's government launched its first channel on the Google-owned video-sharing website YouTube on Wednesday, which the prime minister said would allow the country to counter media "lies" and showcase its successes.

Nouri al-Maliki, whose Shiite Muslim-led government is seeking re-election in national polls in early 2010, said the YouTube channel would help dispel the "lies and misleading information in the news" which did not reflect Iraq's progress.

The YouTube channel was unveiled at the end of a visit to Baghdad by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who yesterday announced plans by the Internet giant to begin digitizing artifacts and documents from Iraq's National Museum, part of a U.S. government-backed effort to entice high-profile firms to Iraq.

Iraq's boisterous media has had unprecedented freedom since the 2003 U.S. invasion ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

But a recent spate of lawsuits against foreign and local media outlets critical of Maliki, his office or his government, new regulations for broadcasters and moves to censor books and the Internet have raised fears of a crackdown.

Relatively few Iraqis have Internet access in their homes, and where it is available, the low bandwidth makes online videos stutter as data is downloaded at relatively low speeds.

In a statement on Tuesday, the U.S. embassy said the YouTube channel would include clips from parliamentary sessions, direct messages from Iraqi leaders to citizens and instructional videos on how to engage with state services.