AMY GOODMAN: You are listening to Democracy Now! As we move on to another issue involving newspapers, we’re going to northern Iraq. For decades, every legally published newspaper in Iraq devoted their front pages to a single subject: the glorification of Saddam Hussein. In post-invasion Iraq, the front-page article of the first newspaper to be distributed in Baghdad speaks out against Iraq’s new rulers.

The leading article reads, quote, “Our people’s joy at the fall of the tyrant and his rule did not mean in any way that they are happy with the invasion and occupation. From the beginning, the people expressed their condemnation of the war, the tragedies which it left behind, and the new calamities which they have suffered, especially as it ended.” The newspaper goes on to say, “The suffering of millions of our people has been aggravated as a result of the loss of even meager essentials of living such as clean water, electricity, medicine and food. No attention has been paid to ensure that these essentials are provided for the people, in clear violation of the obligations under international treaties.”

That, again, the leading article in the first newspaper being published. The paper, called Tareeq Al-Shaab, or The Way of the People, is published by Iraq’s long-banned Communist Party. The paper provides a source of news for a population starved for information. Around 60,000 copies were distributed in Baghdad over the weekend.

When the paper was banned by Saddam Hussein in 1979, Communist Party members kept running it as a monthly, printing it in northern Iraq and sneaking it into Baghdad. Members knew that every publication or movement of the paper could be a death sentence. Saddam Hussein had many communists in Iraq killed. Now thousands of copies are being distributed for free in the capital and major cities throughout Iraq.

We’re joined by Mufid Jazairi, who is the spokesperson for the Communist Party newspaper.

Welcome to Democracy Now! It’s good to have you with us, _Tareeq Al-Shaab — Mufid Jazairi, it’s great to have you with us.

MUFID JAZAIRI: Yeah, hello. I’m hearing you, but not very well. If you will — please, if you can repeat the question?

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us about the history of your newspaper, Tareeq Al-Shaab?

MUFID JAZAIRI: Oh, yes, sure. Tareeq Al-Shaab, which means in English “People’s Path,” is the oldest newspaper in Iraq, which is continuing with publishing. As you know, it’s the newspaper of the Iraqi Communist Party, which was established in the year 1934. All these decades, the newspaper was arriving, but because the party was — almost 65 years was banned and was working in the illegality, the newspaper also was published mainly in the illegality as a small newspaper which secretly was distributed among the people. Only four or five years we could really publish the paper legally, that we could distribute it and sell it normally to the people. Now our newspaper, since the year ’92 — that means after the uprising in Iraq in the year ’91 — from here, from Iraqi Kurdistan in the north of Iraq, we started publishing it legally but only in Iraqi Kurdistan. When we wanted to send it, to distribute it inside the country, I mean, in those areas where there were the authorities of Saddam Hussein, we had to send there a small edition which could be hidden in pocket in somewhere, you see, because it was banned, of course, and illegally we were distributing it.

Now, for the first time after the collapse of the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein, we could send the newspaper, Tareeq Al-Shaab, legally to Baghdad and to all other parts of our country. We did send there tens and tens of thousands, which is a very big number for us. ’Til now we were distributing some several thousands only. This time, we are going to publish it as a weekly. ’Til now we were publishing it once a month. But now we are going to publish it every week on Saturday. So, the next new edition will be next Saturday. This will be first step towards changing it in a daily. Later, when we will be able to prepare needed conditions, material, financial and so on, to publish it in Baghdad as a daily, so we will start with that. And we will renew those days when Tareeq Al-Shaab was the best and the most famous and the biggest newspaper in Baghdad in the middle of the ’70s. People now are waiting for that. We are waiting for that. We are looking forward to achieve this goal.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Mufid Jazairi, speaking to us from northern Iraq, many communists were killed under Saddam Hussein. Now the U.S. is occupying Iraq. Your thoughts?

MUFID JAZAIRI: Sorry, I didn’t catch you one second. The voice is not very clear.

AMY GOODMAN: Your thoughts on the U.S. occupation of Iraq?

MUFID JAZAIRI: Yeah, the U.S. troops are present everywhere in the country, but they didn’t try to man the newspaper or to make any obstacles. We were — indeed freely, we were distributing it, but we don’t know what will happen the next time, next Saturday or in the next weeks, if everything will be like that. So, it’s OK. It’s good. But we can’t be sure of anything. Now, as you know, the authority of Mr. Garner, General Garner, is starting here in Iraq. We heard that he is going to form the new administration, a kind of government, next week. So, what measures they are going to take, we don’t know. We will see, but we hope that they will not put or make problems on this field. They were saying when they came here with their troops that they are bringing the freedom to Iraq. We hope that they will keep it, they will really help us with a new life and freedom.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Mufid Jazairi, I want to thank you very much for being with us, of Tareeq Al-Shaab, “The Way of the People,” the Iraqi Communist Party newspaper, joining us from northern Iraq. When we come back, we will end with professor Edward Said. Stay with us.