Joining the Pope, the Royal Family, and numerous world leaders, the Iraqi government today launched a dedicated YouTube channel to air video of speeches, meetings, and special reports.

"The government sees in this video technology an opportunity to show our achievements," said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the channel's inaugural video.

"The world has not seen what the Iraqi government has been able to achieve in regard to security, economy, politics and building."

It's not clear who the content will be aimed at. The BBC cites United Nations statistics as saying that only one in every hundred Iraqis have access to the Internet.

Given that the many of videos currently posted are in Arabic without subtitles, the prime targets might be Iraqis outside the country and the rest of the Arab world.

Writing on the YouTube Blog, Director of Product Management Hunter Walk says that, during a visit to Iraq earlier this year, he "routinely heard the desire to connect with fellow citizens, Iraqis outside the country's borders, and cultures across the world."

Walk also said he'd heard from regular Iraqis about how they use the Internet to stay informed. "One young student," he says, "told us she uses YouTube to understand what is really happening in her country based on the variety of opinions, citizen journalism and news reports uploaded to the site."