Television in Iraq
overview about television in Iraq
Iraq was home to the first television station in the Middle East, which began during the 1950s. As part of a plan to help Iraq modernize, British telecommunications company Pye Limited built and commissioned a television broadcast station in the capital city of Baghdad. Following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi state media collapsed. In June 2004, a Communications and Media Commission was set up to approve and grant license for all the country's media. By 2011, Iraq was the headquarters of 49 free-to-air satellite channels, one of the highest numbers in the region. Until 2003, satellite dishes were banned in Iraq, and there was a limited number of national terrestrial stations. After 2003, the sale of satellite dishes surged, and free-to-air channels entered the market. There are 17 terrestrial channels, of which one is funded by the US government through the U.S. Agency for Global Media (Alhurra-Iraq), and seven are owned by the state broadcaster Iraqi Media Network. In March 2011, Al Jazeera was granted rights to resume operations after being banned in 2004. Plans were established to set up a free-media zone based in Baghdad, the Baghdad Media City, by the end of 2014.
The public source identifies “Television in Iraq” as overview about television in Iraq. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Television, Iraq and overview.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Television in Iraq”, the useful work is to connect “overview about television in Iraq” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7697028. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2004, 2011 and 2014.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Television in Iraq”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Television in Iraq primary sources, Television in Iraq archive and Television research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Television in Iraq”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Television in Iraq” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.