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In
responding to the question on whether Hawlati has
its own opinion, Hardi said that Hawlati does not
have a specific editorial position of its own.
However, written by either its own staff or by
independent writers, emphasising that the staff can
only write their opinions under their own names, not
under that of Hawlati’s.
Hardi was asked about the issue of putting different
opinions forward in their publication and Hardi
replied by stating that Hawlati had always tried to
put all the different opinions across to their
readers. He said, “We publish some contrasting
opinions from the extreme left to the extreme
right.” He gave the example of interviewing Mela
Krekar, the hard line Islamist a number of times,
and also the publishing of a number of interviews
with other Islamic leaders in Kurdistan. Hardi said
that at the same time they have published opinions
of the Communists.
Hardi elaborated with another example, saying that
when the PUK and PKK fought, it was difficult to get
the PKK side of the story because of the heavy
clashes. So, he said, to complete the story, Hawlati
interviewed PKK leaders in Europe as it was easier
to access Europe than the Kurdish mountains and walk
across battle fields.
Asked about the party political media, Hardi said
that they can do much better with the human and
financial resources on their disposal, mentioning
two areas in which the party organs need to improve,
the journalistic language and the addressing of
social issues.
The Hawlati editor was also asked about other
independent media in South Kurdistan, to which he
responded that all the TV stations are party organs,
adding that there may be some small radio stations
that could be regarded as independent to some
degree.
Hardi was asked whether there is any red-lines
limiting Hawlati’s journalistic activities.
“Red-lines are everywhere,” he replied, “even in
this country”, elaborating by stating that although
the Kurdish parties and authorities have been very
unhappy and angry about some of the sorties Hawlati
has published, they have never threatened, punished
or killed anyone. “However, a good journalist can
cross all the red-lines. There is always a way of
crossing,” Hardi said.
Regarding threats to the lives of journalists in
Kurdistan, Hardi said that there is not much risk in
Kurdistan and that the security is under control.
About Hawlati’s link to the Kurdish Diaspora, Hardi
said that their website (Hawlati.com) has tens of
thousands of hits every week and that a number of
distinguished Kurdish writers from the Diaspora
community write for them.
Asked whether he personally supports the withdrawal
of US troops from Iraq, Hardi stated that there is
no realistic case to support the withdrawal of the
US troops, reasoning by stating that the Iraqi
government is very weak. “The government cannot even
control Baghdad, let alone the rest of the country,”
he said, adding that if the US troops withdrew, the
security vacuum would expand and this may increase
the possibility of a civil war, which has been
addressed in the media.
Hardi was asked how he sees the Kurdish issue three
to five years down the road. He modestly said that
it is hard to predict the future, but noted that he
would like to see a constitution that every single
Iraqi ethnic and religious group would be
comfortable with.
After the meeting, KurdishMedia.com talked to Hardi
and his team about the challenges that they are
facing. The Hawlati staff said that although they
sell about 15,000 copies, perhaps the most popular
newspaper in South Kurdistan, they added that the
distribution was very poor as there is no effective
postal service in Kurdistan. The distribution very
much depends on their own effort, they said,
mentioning for example the fact that Hawlati gets to
Hewler (Arbil) the day after its publication. In the
case of Baghdad, where there are at least 1.5
million Kurds, only few copies are sent for
non-commercial reasons.
Asos Hardi was born in Sulemani, South Kurdistan, in
1963 to the intellectual Hardi family. His father,
Ahmed Hardi, is one of the pioneering Kurdish poets
of what is known as the Goran School of poetry.
Hardi studied Engineering in Mosul and Hewler. In
2000, along with a group of young journalists, Hardi
established the weekly Hawlati in Southern
Kurdistan. He is its editor in chief.
www.kurdishmedia.com
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