Iraqi govt. grant for journalists, writers, artists, to be paid soon

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Ministry of Culture has announced on Thursday that its financial grants, allocated for journalists, writers and artists, would be paid in the second half of this month. “The Ministry of Culture has decided to distribute its financial grants for Iraqi writers, journalists and artists after mid December, because some of the lists of their names had been delayed till this date,” a Culture Ministry source told IraqiNews.com news agency. Noteworthy is that a committee, led by the Iraqi Culture Ministry‘s Undersecretary, Taher Mahmoud, and membership of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, Writers Union, Popular Poets Union, Photographers Union and the Artists Union, had issued lists, including names of their members to be covered by what it termed as “Encouragement Awards,” to continue in the future as well. The total award was not announced by the Culture Ministry on Thursday, but a previous statement by the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate had said that it would be about 400,000 Iraqi dinars (US$357 approx.) every 3 months. SKH/SR 1