Iraq's Militia-Led Communications Commission Clamps Down on Press Coverage of Security Issues

As members of Iran's so-called "axis of resistance" are expelled from Syria amid the fall of the Assad regime, Iraq’s self-styled muqawama (resistance) militias have grown increasingly paranoid about the potential for a domestic uprising that could threaten their own hold on power. Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba (HaN), one of the most aggressive of these militias, has vocally accused foreign powers of conspiring to destabilize Iraq. On December 10, HaN’s political bureau released a statement alleging an Anglo-American plot to bring chaos to the country, with supposed help from regional actors like Israel and Turkey.

Projecting Paranoia Over Domestic Security

HaN's statement criticizes Iraq's security forces for prioritizing the wrong threats and supposedly missing the real culprit behind Assad's fall: “What happened in Syria was not spontaneous. It occurred during the axis’s preoccupation with supporting Gaza. An operations room based in Turkey orchestrated the destruction, with British planning and intelligence contributions from NATO and the Zionist entity. This included providing support, planning, and the use of satellites and drones to monitor Syrian forces' movements and positions.”

Open image

According to HaN, this supposed cabal of foreign actors is now targeting Iraq: “The same operations room is currently working to sabotage Iraq under British leadership, but this time from Baghdad, not from outside the borders.” The statement then critiques the Iraqi government and military for prioritizing border security while supposedly neglecting internal threats: “It is strange to give the Iraqi borders such great attention while ignoring the internal danger! Yes, preserving our borders is important, but we must not be deceived and overlook the real threat centered in the capital. The conspiracy is distributed across the center, south, and our western and northern regions, each playing their role in the plan. The true danger comes from within, not outside the borders” (Figure 1).

Open image

Media Crackdown

This statement highlights the intense paranoia currently gripping Iraqi muqawama groups, who perceive growing external and internal threats to their position. To counter these alleged threats, muqawama figures are increasingly calling for restrictions on Iraq's media space. Their rationale is that curbing freedom of speech will help prevent such conspiracies from materializing. 

In solidarity with these calls, the militia-dominated Communications and Media Commission (CMC) is swiftly implementing measures aligned with muqawama demands. For example, it recently issued a letter with “directives” to “all media organizations,” with the stated goal of countering “the media machine of the usurping Zionist entity." According to the CMC, Israel is "waging a fierce attack, threatening the possibility of launching a military strike against Iraq.”

Signed by CMC director-general Ali Hussein al-Moayad, the letter included the following directives (as translated from the original Arabic in Figure 2):

1. To allocate time slots from daily broadcast hours to highlight the efforts and measures undertaken by the security forces, through which they seek to maintain the security and stability of Iraq.
2. To not host figures (political and security analysts) who make misleading and false statements and information that may lead to destabilizing Iraqi society and arousing misleading public opinion that is skeptical of the security services.
3. To condemn and denounce the media onslaught of the usurping Zionist entity and to show the defeat and collapse in the ranks of the Zionist enemy, by hosting political and security figures who have experience in counterpropaganda.
4. Not to broadcast any material containing false, misleading, or inaccurate information with the aim of harming the reputation of the security services, which may lead to igniting sectarian strife among members of Iraqi society.
5. To host clerics and imams of mosques affiliated with the Shia and Sunni endowments for the purpose of spreading the national religious discourse calling for preserving the security and stability of Iraq, strengthening societal cohesion, and praising the efforts of our security forces.

Indeed, the actions and rhetoric of Iraqi muqawama militias project a deepening sense of insecurity as they perceive threats (both foreign and domestic) to their influence and even survival. This threat inflation can also help them justify a greater role and budget for the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and wider restrictions on civil rights. The push to curtail media freedoms, supported by directives from the CMC, highlights their strategy to dominate the narrative under the pretext of safeguarding national security and stability. This reflects their desire to preempt any new movement resembling the Tishreen protests, which called for comprehensive political reforms and advocated a nationalist agenda over one that turns Iraq into a satellite of Iran.