Not everyone in Baghdad is convinced that the monolithic state media is doing a good job in informing the public about the outside world or in getting the Iraqi leadership's message across.

The Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein - at least in terms of his public pronouncements - has not changed his view of the pernicious nature of the Western media.

He told the Iraqi cabinet this week that most Iraqis already had enough choice of TV viewing.

We must say the majority of our people do not now care about satellite channels. Saddam Hussein

"We have the Iraq Channel, the Iraq Satellite Channel and the Al-Shabab Channel. That is enough. We should not send our children into forbidden areas... we do not need to turn our people into hollow people," he said.

According to Iraqi TV, Saddam Hussein was commenting on a government proposal to lift restrictions on the use of satellite dishes to receive foreign channels directly.

The move followed a decision six months ago to allow Baghdad residents to receive some foreign channels - but not news channels - via a special decoder on an expensive pay TV service.

'Not wanted'

Saddam Hussein made a pointed distinction between the Baghdad elite and the rest of the Iraqi people.

Conveying the different viewpoints of .. enemies is effectively sabotage Saddam Hussein

"We must say the majority of our people do not now care about satellite channels and their number. Only certain people in Baghdad, not our people at large, care about these channels," he said.

"Our people are now interested in other things such as how to earn a living and how to improve their professions, farms or industries. Those indulging in luxury without daily jobs care about satellite channels and their number, but the popular quarters have other interests.

"Conveying the different viewpoints of others, who are enemies rather than friends, is effectively sabotage, regardless of intentions."

Online

But at the same time the Iraqi leadership has recently been making concessions to the demands of the elite for more open access to the West.

Dr Shakir Abd-al-Aziz, head of the International Internet Services Company, said this week that Iraq was working to expand its Internet connection threefold.

He said that following a recent decision to allow the opening of internet cafes, his company was beginning operations in four cafes in Baghdad, with "scores" of other applications under consideration.

The number of internet subscribers in Baghdad had reached 5,000 in the last two months, Dr Abd-al-Aziz added.

Babil is back

In another sign of change, Babil, the Iraqi newspaper published by Saddam Hussein's son Uday, has now resumed publication following a month-long ban in mid-November. It has recently launched an online edition.

In a long article commenting on its suspension, Babil criticised the "stereotyped" Iraqi press which it accused of imposing a "total blackout on news, information and analysis".

It said its own temporary closure had only served to provide the Western media with additional ammunition to attack Iraq and give it a negative image.

Babil was very careful to point out that Saddam Hussein had been, as it put it, "the first to defend" the need for freedom of speech in Iraq.

But it argued that its own continued publication would provide easier access to "quality" information for politicians and ordinary readers, as well as countering the spread of unfounded rumours.

By its reports on national issues, Babil said, it could present "the best living example of freedom".

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.