Iraqi Media Network (IMN)

The Iraqi Media Network (IMN) is the principal Iraqi state-aligned media institution and the country’s flagship multi-platform media conglomerate, established in May 2003 in the aftermath of the Saddam Hussein regime under the supervision of the Coalition Provisional Authority and subsequently restructured by the 2015 Law on IMN. IMN operates television, radio, print and news-agency assets under a Board of Trustees nominated by the Iraqi Cabinet of Ministers and approved by the Council of Representatives.

Media assets

Television: Al-Iraqiya, Al-Iraqiya Sports, Al-Iraqiya News

Radio: Republic of Iraq Radio

Print media: Al-Sabah, IMN Magazine

News agency: Iraqi News Agency

Ownership and governance

IMN was established in May 2003 as the legal successor to the Iraqi Radio and Television Corporation, which had served as the Ba’ath-era state propaganda apparatus. The 2015 Law on IMN reshaped the network as a public-sector institution with legal personality, placed under the supervision of the Council of Representatives, and includes formal public-service and editorial-independence language. In principle, the appointment process for the Board of Trustees involves nominees from the Council of Ministers and approval by the Council of Representatives; in practice, the February 2024 appointments were controversial because the Council of Ministers directly designated five new trustees, prompting parliamentary criticism that the appointments should have been sent to parliament for approval. The Coordination Framework, a coalition of Shia parties dominant in the Council of Representatives, has held a de facto majority on the Board since those February 2024 appointments.

Current IMN materials identify Thaer Al-Ghanimi as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, alongside trustees including Sanaa Saeed Halata, Hamad Mahmoud Al-Doukhi, Awsam Majid Ghanim, Islam Hassan and Aalan Abdullah Abdulrahman. Earlier reporting on the February 2024 appointments identified five new trustees and linked several to parties within the Coordination Framework.

Karim Hammadi (also referenced as Abdul Karim Hammadi) has served as President of IMN through the 2025/26 review period and was confirmed in post by IMN reporting through April and May 2026, including his role at the network’s official ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of Iraqi Television on 2 May 1956 (widely described as the first television service in the Arab world and among the earliest in the Middle East). Hammadi succeeded Nabil Jasem after a contested leadership period. Hammadi previously held senior editorial and administrative roles within IMN and has overseen IMN’s expansion as a central vehicle of Iraqi government communication during the outgoing Sudani government and through the early days of the al-Zaidi government.

The 2025/26 cycle’s defining political event for IMN’s governance environment was the 11 November 2025 parliamentary election and the subsequent government-formation process. The Coordination Framework retained its parliamentary majority. Nizar Amedi of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was elected President by the Council of Representatives on 11 April 2026. On 14 May 2026, parliament approved Ali al-Zaidi’s government programme and part of his cabinet, marking the start of the al-Zaidi government, although several ministerial posts remained unresolved. The institutional governance structure of IMN, including the Board composition and the Hammadi presidency, remained intact across the government-formation period.

Source of funding and budget

IMN is funded through a combination of state subsidies, advertising revenue, sales of broadcast rights, rental fees for broadcast facilities and printing-press operations, and does not publish audited financial statements that would permit external scrutiny of its funding sources or operating budget. SMM-retained expert sources, drawing on prior cycle interviews with Iraqi media observers, indicate that at least 80 per cent of IMN’s operating budget is derived from government subsidies; this funding-share characterisation should be treated as an SMM-retained expert estimate rather than a published official budget line. The Washington Institute reported IMN’s annual budget at approximately US$75 million in 2024 (up from approximately US$70 million in 2019 per Independent Arabia), and a workforce of approximately 3,500 staff supporting branches in each Iraqi province and bureaux in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Iran, Egypt and Australia.

Iraq had a three-year federal budget framework for 2023 to 2025, but the 2026 budget process remained uncertain during the government-formation period following the November 2025 parliamentary election. The SMM 2025/26 review did not identify a published IMN-specific allocation for 2025 or 2026. The wider Iraqi fiscal environment, including oil-price volatility and the protracted government-formation process, remains a source of subsidy risk for IMN.

Editorial independence

IMN’s 2015 founding law mandates editorial independence in principle, but in practice IMN’s editorial output is closely aligned with the dominant political forces in the Council of Representatives at any given moment. Iraqi journalists working for IMN affiliates have reported losing positions or facing administrative consequences for publicly criticising the Iraqi government or Coordination Framework politicians, including in non-IMN editorial roles, and Iraqi press-freedom monitors describe a chilling effect on editorial output across the network. The Board of Trustees does not function as an arm’s-length governing body insulating editorial production from political appointment authorities, and no independent statutory regulator or oversight body monitors IMN’s editorial standards or compliance with the 2015 law’s editorial-independence mandate.

During the 2025/26 cycle, IMN’s editorial output covered the 11 November 2025 parliamentary election, the prolonged government-formation period from November 2025 through May 2026, and the elevation of Ali al-Zaidi to the premiership. Iraqi press-freedom monitors and journalists have continued to identify IMN’s editorial framing across these events as supportive of the Coordination Framework’s position. IMN also hosted Baghdad’s role as a regional media hub during the cycle, including the Fourth Arab Media Conference and the Seventh Annual International Conference of Baghdad Dialogue, both in May 2025, and the 70th anniversary observances for Iraqi Television in May 2026.

AI and digital policy

IMN has not published a public-facing institutional AI policy. Iraq has no public-sector generative-AI framework specific to IMN. National digital-policy work has focused more on telecommunications, platform regulation and infrastructure than on newsroom AI governance, and the SMM 2025/26 review identified no AI-related policy or guidance from IMN itself.

Classification rationale

IMN remains classified as State-Controlled (SC) for the 2026 cycle. The 2015 Law on IMN gives the network legal personality and includes formal public-service and independence language, but the governing Board of Trustees is politically appointed and has not functioned as an arm’s-length safeguard for editorial production. The February 2024 trustee appointments, made by the Council of Ministers and criticised by parliamentary figures over procedure, strengthened the influence of parties within the Coordination Framework. IMN remains predominantly funded through public subsidies according to SMM-retained expert sources, does not publish audited financial statements, and the 2025/26 cycle (including the 2025 parliamentary election and 2026 government-formation period) produced no governance, funding or editorial reform sufficient to move IMN out of the SC category.

June 2026