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Iraq bans CNN Baghdad bureau chief
(CNN) -- Iraq has banned longtime CNN Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf from Iraq. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf notified CNN of the ban in a Baghdad meeting this week with CNN newsgathering chief Eason Jordan. Al-Sahaf refused to explain why Arraf was being banned from Iraq, although he and other Iraqi officials have complained in recent days and weeks about CNN reporting they characterized as biased and offensive. Jordan appealed in vain for the ban to be rescinded, saying the ban was unjustified and that Arraf and CNN's Iraq reporting was journalistically first-rate. Arraf has been the only Westerner to serve as a Baghdad-based bureau chief and correspondent over the past four years. Arraf is the fourth CNN correspondent to be banned from Iraq this year. In August, Iraq banned CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Wolf Blitzer and Richard Roth. Jordan said Arraf, who is now in Amman, Jordan, will keep her Baghdad bureau chief title while she reports from neighboring countries and as CNN continues appealing to Iraqi authorities to permit her to return. CNN said it will maintain its Baghdad bureau, with CNN Senior Correspondent Nic Robertson, Rym Brahimi and other CNN correspondents reporting from the Iraqi capital. The CNN Baghdad team will be headed by Senior Producer Ingrid Formanek, Jordan said. Robertson and Formanek were among the CNN journalists in Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War.
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