Iraq's Governing Council took action against the Arabic television networks al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya for what it calls "incitement to violence" in their reporting about Iraq.
Entefadh Qanbar, spokesman for the council's head Ahmad Chalabi, said it was discussing the legal means of shutting down the two stations temporarily for allegedly inciting violence against US occupation forces and their Iraqi supporters.
"The Governing Council issued a decision to close al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya," Qanbar told a news conference. He later said the closure would be temporary, for a "relatively short period of time."
"We have not been informed of this decision and our bureau in Baghdad is working normally," said al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballut.
Qanbar said the stations could face further action, including fines, and once allowed to resume broadcasting would be subjected to a raft of regulations which would be applied to all media in Iraq.
The regulations, he said, would "put a mandate to prevent political violence."
"It's not censorship, in every country there are rules and regulations on media," he said.
"It is a problem, we will not let Iraq be a staging ground for their exciting activities," he said.
Some sources in Baghdad said the council intended to expel the two leading Arabic channels from the country for a month.
Leading Iraqi officials have complained for several weeks about the tone of the coverage on the Arabic networks, particularly their decisions to air recorded messages from former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and threats against the 25 Iraqis who were appointed to the Governing Council.
"The council has discussed the problem of incitement to violence in which al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya have persisted and has resolved to take firm action," Samir Shakir Mahmoud al-Sumaidy, head of the council's media committee, said last night.
The move came after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a car outside the UN's headquarters in Baghdad on Monday, killing an Iraqi security guard and injuring at least 17 others. It was the second attack on the UN in a month.
Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar, and al-Arabiya, in the United Arab Emirates, both have large teams of reporters in Iraq and are widely watched by locals. They frequently broadcast graphic images of the daily attacks on US soldiers, and much of their reporting has been deeply critical of the military occupation, often openly doubting the military's version of events.
Last week al-Arabiya reported that eight American troops were killed in an ambush of a military convoy near the town of Khaldiya, west of Baghdad. The US insisted only two soldiers were wounded.
The Governing Council seems to have been particularly angered by a message from unnamed Islamic militants, broadcast by al-Arabiya in July, which carried threats against council members. The broadcast was a "conduit for terrorists," said Philip Reeker, an American state department spokesman.
The Iraqis' concern came to a head on Saturday when Aqila al-Hashmi, one of three women on the council, was shot and seriously injured in an attack outside her home.
Jihad Ballout, a spokesman for al-Jazeera in Doha, last night defended his network's coverage of Iraq.
"We are a news organization; we do not deal in politics," he said.
"Al-Jazeera believes in being a platform for various points of view ... whether they are Americans, Britons or Iraqis opposed to the regime," Ballout said.
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