The Guardian ordered to pay Iraq PM compensation

LONDON (AFP) – The Guardian has been ordered to pay Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki compensation for describing him as increasingly autocratic in an article, the paper said on Wednesday.

An Iraqi court upheld a complaint of defamation against Maliki and ordered the Guardian to pay him 100 million dinars (52,000 pounds), the newspaper said.

The court supported a complaint by Maliki's intelligence service against the paper over an article written by a local Iraqi reporter.

The article, published in April, quoted unnamed members of the Iraqi national intelligence service who claimed the prime minister was beginning to run Iraqi affairs with an authoritarian hand.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the Guardian: "I was very concerned to hear reports of today's court ruling. Media freedom is vital in any democracy."

The Guardian said it would appeal the decision, which it described as a further blow to free speech in the war-torn country.

"This is a dismaying development. Prime Minister Maliki is trying to construct a new, free Iraq," the newspaper's editor Alan Rusbridger said.

"Freedom means little without free speech -- and means even less if a head of state tries to use the law of libel to punish criticism or dissent."

But Maliki's office denied any responsibility for the lawsuit and said it was the intelligence services that sued the paper "because it quoted three of its officers," a statement in Baghdad said on Wednesday.

"We confirm the importance of respecting freedom of expression... and freedom of the press is guaranteed by the (Iraqi) constitution," the statement added.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh echoed the statement, telling AFP in Baghdad: "Mr Maliki is not linked to this case and he should not be getting any compensation. The suit was filed by the intelligence services."