THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Simon Haselock has been appointed “media commissioner” for Iraq is bad news for a free Iraqi media. I know Simon extremely well and like him, but there is good cause for considering his appointment to the country’s top media administrative position a mistake. Simon Haselock comes to Iraq from similar postings in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. In neither country was his career marked by success in supporting local media.

In Sarajevo, Haselock served as media spokesman for the Office of the High Representative, the European agency governing the Bosnians in the aftermath of the Dayton Agreement. In Kosovo, he became media commissioner.