The role of the press in Iraq's long struggle for democratic reform

Despite a wealth of recent research which has detailed the impact that new media outlets and technologies have had on the Middle East's nascent public sphere and its role in promoting democracy, there has been little investigation into the re-emergence of the free press in Iraq following the toppling of Saddam in 2003 and the corresponding end to his tight control over the nation's media sector. This has seen Iraq shift from only a handful of state papers that served as propaganda machines, to a wealth of over 200 Iraqi-owned newspapers which are being fervently produced and avidly read on the streets of the nation. This paper therefore reviews the developments in Iraq's media sector and finds that, despite the extensive interference from governmental entities both outside and inside Iraq, the nations media have been central to the re-emergence of an Iraqi public sphere which has openly debated and discussed the issues surrounding the nation's shift from despotism to democracy.