VZCZCXRO2361
RR RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHGB #0403/01 0410856
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 100856Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2612
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0989
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000403 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS, SENSITIVE 
 
LONDON FOR ARAB MEDIA UNIT 
 
E.0. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EPET EFIN ECON KCOR KPAO OPRC IZ
SUBJECT:  IRAQI MINISTRIES AGREE -- AD REF -- ON 
MESSAGE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGN ON FUEL PRICE 
HIKES 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Embassy Media Development Officer attended a 
February 6 meeting convened by Mohammed al-Asadi, director 
of the Government Communications Directorate (GCD), to 
continue discussions of a public "message" for government 
reductions in fuel subsidies.  (Note:  Messages would 
eventually encompass overall economic reform, but initially 
we are focusing on fuel subsidies, the hot-button political 
issue at this time.)  The ministries of electricity (MOE), 
oil (MOO), finance (MOF), labor and social affairs (MOLSA), 
transportation (MOT), and Planning (MOP) were represented. 
Phil Malone, DFID advisor to the GCD, and Olga Zatepilina, 
International Republican Institute Country Director, and 
Samir Zedan, USAID Public Affairs Advisor, also attended. 
Iraqi participants repeatedly veered off course to speculate 
what kinds of reforms/new benefits might accompany the price 
hikes, i.e., what might be the best carrot to bring people 
along.  We reminded them that such "deliverables" might have 
to await phase two of the campaign: right now the government 
must explain the need for general reforms. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) After much hesitation, participants agreed that 
the fuel price message should be linked to the message on 
MoLSA's expanded social safety net, but MoLSA could not 
provide firm assurance that payments would be available to 
coincide with the price hikes.  The most the government 
could do at this point (for the initial public campaign) was 
inform citizens they could register for the expanded safety 
net program at their provincial councils, and explain that 
the program would soon serve 1 million families.  (Comment: 
In a separate meeting, MoLSA officials had said that 1 
million families should be covered in March.  USAID sources 
indicate that June would be a more realistic timeframe.) 
They also agreed to include at least one message containing 
the anti-corruption hotline, though the details were not 
ironed out.  At the end of the meeting, PAS pulled GCD 
director aside to ask him to begin working with key TV and 
radio outlets to suggest they provide free air time for this 
public service effort.  (COMMENT:  This will no doubt be 
difficult.) 
 
Processing the Message 
---------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The group created about 10 "test" messages for TV 
and radio spots; subsequent negotiations among the Iraqi 
players extended the themes.  Embassy is further distilling 
these messages, and we will provide them to IRI, which 
agreed to submit them to some focus groups to see how they 
are received by regular Iraqis.  The Iraqi public affairs 
officials agreed at the end of the meeting to vet the 
messages with their ministry policy officers, while the 
embassy began vetting capabilities and prices of local 
contractors. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Messages in hand, embassy PAS co-hosted a meeting 
with GCD for prospective bidders on February 8; due to 
extensive security procedures instituted for Ashura, only 
one of four companies and one of three Iraqi government 
officials (GCD) were able to reach the International Zone. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The lone contractor who attended said it would 
take 15-20 days to produce six radio and six TV spots (30 
seconds each).  When asked to comment on the overall task, 
one of the contractor participants said that it would be 
very difficult to sell any message that implied fuel price 
increases without explaining what was happening to 
government income from crude oil exports.  If there was 
clear evidence the government was easing severe hardships, 
the message might be credible.  Another contractor 
participant said that no one would understand why the 
subsidies should be eliminated, and not the funds they all 
now believe are being diverted by ministries charged with 
spending oil revenues.  No one had seen where reconstruction 
aid had gone; no one had seen where oil income had gone; and 
no one believes they will see the "savings" the government 
says it will realize from subsidy reductions.  Nonetheless, 
the contractor was prepared to work with the government to 
further develop scenarios for the campaign.  The owner of 
the PR company said that, given the likely extreme distaste 
for the message (people were absorbing higher prices for all 
goods after the last price hike), the campaign will have to 
try and create a new dynamic between government and citizen. 
To succeed, it will have to be an "intellectual message 
wrapped in an emotional package." 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Embassy is making some revisions to the technical 
requirements for the TV spots and intends to distribute them 
to all bidders in a meeting on February 12.  By then, we 
 
BAGHDAD 00000403  002 OF 002 
 
 
expect that Ashura security precautions will have been fully 
dismantled, again permitting relatively free access to our 
meeting site. 
 
KHALILZAD