The Iraqi Government will no longer allow the media to film scenes of bombings reports PDN.

Police began enforcing the new law last week, firing shots into the air to disperse journalists who gathered after a bomb went off in Baghdad’s Tayaran Square.

The law will have the greatest impact on the local Iraqi media. In the most dangerous parts of the country the international press corps are usually embedded with U.S. military units in relative safety, whereas wire services and news agencies employ local staff to gather news in the field.

For some time the military authorities have been suspicious about press arriving quickly at bomb scenes, claiming that they may have advance knowledge of attacks by forces resistant to the occupation.

Iraqi AP photographer Bilal Hussein who has been held in prison without charge by the US for 13 months has been informally accused of liasing with the rebels to facilitate his work in Fallujah.