Editing Iraqi Interim Government (section)

===Allawi's policies===
In August, Allawi closed the Iraqi office of [[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]] for thirty days. His minister [[Hoshiyar Zebari]] deplored the "one-sided and biased coverage" and declared that the interim government "will not allow some people to hide behind the slogan of freedom of the press and media."{{citation needed|date=June 2013}} Allawi also appointed ex-Baathist and former Saddam intelligence officer [[Ibrahim Janabi]] as the head of the Higher Media Commission, a regulator of Iraq's media.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=17458 |title=Iraq's Prime Minister suppresses media |first=Bill |last=Berkowitz |publisher=[[Working Assets]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110034931/http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=17458 |archive-date=November 10, 2006 |access-date=27 June 2013 |url-status=unfit }}</ref> The banning of Al Jazeera was widely criticised in the Arab world and the West, for example by [[Reporters Sans Frontières]] who called it "a serious blow to press freedom".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1279412,00.html|title=Al-Jazeera closure 'a blow to freedom' |last=O'Carroll|first=Lisa|date=9 August 2004|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=27 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/533359.htm |title=Banning bad news in Iraq |work=[[International Herald Tribune]] |date=11 August 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040815040759/http://www.iht.com/articles/533359.htm |archive-date=15 August 2004 |access-date=27 June 2013}}</ref>

The negotiations that followed the fighting between [[Muqtada al-Sadr|Muqtada al-Sadr's]] [[Mahdi Army|militia]] and joint US/Iraqi forces in [[Najaf]] ended when Allawi withdrew his emissary Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie on August 14. An al-Sadr spokesman alleged that they "had agreed with Rubaie on all points but  Allawi called him back and he ended the issue."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3565200.stm|title=Talks collapse in Iraqi holy city|date=14 August 2004|publisher=[[BBC News]]|access-date=27 June 2013}}</ref>