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Saddam-era censorship may be a thing of the past,
but journalists are facing new dangers.
Journalist Omar Gharib, deputy manager of the Kirkuk
branch of the Kurdistan Journalists' Association,
looked weary as he described his several run-ins
with insurgents.
"They called me and told me if I don't quit
journalism, I'll be kidnapped," he recalled one
threat.
But he said the intimidation has not put him off his
work. In fact, he says he intends to give a lecture
to journalists in Kirkuk on how to escape if they're
abducted.
While there's no press censorship in Iraq,
journalists complain of intimidation by police
officers, officials - but their biggest fear is the
insurgents.
Since March 2003, at least 85 journalists, cameramen
and media executives have been killed in Iraq, and
almost 80 per cent of the victims have been Iraqi,
according to the International Federation of
Journalists, IFJ.
Only last month, three Baghdad-based reporters on
their way to Karbala were killed after the minibus
in which they were travelling was stopped by an
armed group.
Najem Abd Khudair and Ahmad Adam - both of whom
worked for the Al Mada newspaper - and Al Safeer
newspaper reporter Ali Jassem al-Rumi were singled
out for execution when they showed their press cards
to the militants. The other passengers in the
vehicle were let go.
"They had their throats cut in cold-blooded and
ruthless executions that are a cruel demonstration
of the horrors of working in journalism in Iraq
today," said IFJ general-secretary Aidan White in a
statement.
Gharib said Kurdish journalists are especially in
danger, citing the murder of Kirkuk TV news
announcer Saman Abdullah on April 15. Gunmen opened
fired on Abdullah while he was driving down a main
street in Kirkuk during the day. He was the third
Kurdish journalist to be killed in two days.
"The insurgents wanted to deal him a blow one way or
the other," said Gharib.
Senior Kirkuk police official Sarhad Qadir said the
security forces recognised the dangers faced by
journalists and would soon provide them with flak
jackets. Guns, he added, would also be made
available to them when they go on particularly risky
assignments.
While Saddam-era censorship is a thing of the past,
journalists also continue to face problems with the
authorities.
Last month, for example, Erbil police filed a
lawsuit against the Hawlati newspaper because of an
article published on March 30 about the arrest of a
group who'd been making pornographic films. Nabaz
Goran, head of the title's office in the city, was
arrested on May 19 and released after four days.
Erbil police official Farhad Kareem Saleem said he'd
been detained because the story wasn't true and
damaged the reputation of the city.
Though it may not rank as intimidation, a complaint
that's often made by journalists is that officials
simply won't talk to them. Ayyub Karim,
editor-in-chief of the Liberal Education newspaper,
which is published in Sulaimaniyah and Erbil, said,
"It isn't much of a democracy if an official isn't
prepared to answer our questions."
Saman Fawzi, a teacher in the College of Law in
Sulimaniyah University, said that many of the
problems faced by reporters stem from the media
outlets they work for being linked or financed by
political parties. "Newspapers are often viewed as
spies - not as a source of information and news," he
said.
Fareed Zamdar, head of the Sulaimaniyah branch of
the Kurdistan Journalists Association, said the
group will lobby lawmakers to bolster protection for
journalists in the new constitution that will be
drafted by the National Assembly.
"We are going to hold symposiums and meetings with
other media institutions in Kurdistan so that our
views can be reflected in the new Iraqi
constitution," he said.
Some deputies have already responded positively to
the journalists' urgings. National Assembly member
Nawzad Salih Raf'at said, "Through the legal
committees in the Iraqi parliament, we can suggest
issuing a law for organising the affairs of
journalists."
Faraydoon Jalal is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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