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In Iraqi Kurdistan, CPJ delegation
highlights press freedom concerns
6.11.2007
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November
6, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq', --
The Committee to Protect Journalists concluded a
two-week fact-finding mission to Iraqi Kurdistan
today by calling on Iraqi Kurdish leaders to
investigate a spate of unsolved assaults on
outspoken journalists, and by urging legislators to
remove vague prohibitions from a press bill now
before parliament.
CPJ met with dozens of journalists from the official
and independent press in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah to
assess the region’s press freedom climate. In Erbil,
seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), CPJ
Deputy Director Robert Mahoney and CPJ Senior
Program Coordinator Joel Campagna met with KRG
officials and legislators, who were receptive to
CPJ’s concerns.
The media in Iraq’s Kurdistan region are dominated
by KRG President Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the
region’s main political parties. However, several
outspoken independent and semi-independent
newspapers—in addition to online news sites—have
emerged over the last several years, providing
critical coverage of local politics and government.
The influential broadcast media are largely
controlled by the two political parties.
While the margin to criticize is relatively wide in
the independent press, journalists have expressed
concern about a rising number of physical attacks on
the press, the arbitrary detentions of reporters by
security forces, and the use of the courts to harass
journalists. Those targeted often harshly criticize
local officials, discuss alleged high-level
corruption, or write about the parties’ top
leadership. Officials and journalists expressed
concern about professional standards in the
boisterous independent press and stressed the urgent
need for more journalism training.
The CPJ delegation raised particular alarm about
beatings and abductions carried out by men wearing
military-style uniforms.
“These alarming attacks are a dangerous threat to
press freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan and, if they
continue, threaten to undermine the important
progress achieved by independent journalists here in
recent years,” CPJ’s Mahoney said. “KRG officials
should publicly condemn these reprehensible attacks
and launch serious inquiries to bring the
perpetrators to justice. The failure to do so would
suggest that Iraqi Kurdish officials condone such
attacks.”
In its meetings with KRG officials, CPJ also
expressed concern about politicized legal actions
against outspoken journalists. In Iraqi Kurdistan,
like the rest of Iraq, defamation is a criminal
offense and is prosecuted under the harsh Baath-era
penal code, which provides for imprisonment.
Although no journalists are currently in prison in
the KRG areas, Kurdish-Austrian writer
Dr Kamal Said Qadir,
also known as Kamal Karim, was sentenced last year
to 30 years in prison for defamation in articles he
had published on Kurdistanpost criticizing the KDP
and its leader Massoud Barzani, whom he accused of
corruption and abuse of power. Qadir was eventually
pardoned and released. Also in 2006, two journalists
for the
independent Hawlati newspaper were handed suspended
jail terms for allegedly libeling a KRG official it
accused of abuse of power. Several other criminal
defamation lawsuits are currently in the courts
against critical reporters.
www.ekurd.net
The KRG parliament is discussing a new press bill,
crafted with the support of the Kurdistan
Journalists Syndicate. The 14-article draft, a
version of which was reviewed by CPJ, appears to be
minimally restrictive when compared with draconian
media laws that prevail throughout the Middle East.
The document, for example, does not provide for the
detention and imprisonment of journalists.
However, Article 10 of the draft outlines a host of
vague prohibitions—punishable by fines of between 1
and 2 million dinars (US$800 and 1,600)—against news
that “disturbs security, spreads fear, or causes
harm to people,” or that “encourages terrorism and
sows hatred,” or that runs counter to “public
morals.” Article 7 prescribes the same fines for
newspapers that do not provide corrections for
publishing “untrue information.” It is unclear who
would decide what constitutes incorrect news; the
provision is open to abuse in a climate where party
officials frequently condemn newspapers for what
they publish. Given the tenuous financial situation
of independent papers—several operate at losses or
barely break even—the elastic language of articles 7
and 10 could be exploited by pro-party judges to put
critical newspapers out of business.
“This restrictive language has no place in this law.
It is incompatible with the kind of democratic
society which Kurdish officials have publicly
embraced,” CPJ’s Campagna said. “We urge KRG
officials and parliamentarians to ensure that
legislation governing the media is compatible with
international standards. That entails doing away
with needlessly restrictive prohibitions in the
press law and other laws that defy international
standards. By making the necessary amendments, the
KRG can help set a model for the rest of Iraq and
the region.”
In meetings with KRG officials, CPJ outlined recent
assaults on outspoken journalists that have gone
unsolved by KRG authorities. They include:
Nasseh Abdel Raheem Rashid, Kurdistanpost: On
October 7, four armed men abducted and assaulted
Rashid, a Halabja-based journalist who writes for
the expatriate online news site Kurdistanpost and
for the local student paper Liberal Education,
Rashid told CPJ. Rashid had been walking in
Halabja’s central market in the evening when four
armed men dressed in military uniforms accosted him
and forced him into a waiting Nissan pickup. The men
placed a sack over his head, handcuffed him, tied
his legs with a scarf and drove him around for two
hours before stopping in a remote area, the
journalist said. There, the men began to punch,
kick, and threaten Rashid, the journalist said. At
one point, Rashid said, the men cocked their rifles
and said they would kill him if he continued his
work. The assailants left him at the scene with a
warning not to tell anyone of the incident. Rashid
reported the attack to local security in Halabja,
but no suspects have been apprehended. In his
writings for Kurdistanpost, Rashid frequently
criticizes Kurdish authorities and the practices of
the Kurdish security forces, known as Asayish. In
June, the journalist was questioned by security
forces and later charged with defamation by a group
of former PUK and KDP fighters, who said the
journalist had defamed them in an online article
criticizing the KDP and PUK over their performance
in governing Iraqi Kurdistan.
www.ekurd.net
Aso Jamal Mukhtar, Education TV, Chaw TV: On the
evening of May 5, Mukhtar, a former employee of the
education ministry’s Education TV and now a camera
technician for the soon-to-be-launched Chaw TV, was
assaulted by three masked men as he left Education
TV’s office in downtown Sulaymania, the journalist
said. The men—two wielding sticks and the third a
pistol—blocked the path of Mukhtar’s car with their
dark gray Mazda in an alley near Education TV’s
office. They pulled the journalist out of the
vehicle and began beating him with the sticks, said
Mukhtar, adding that he eventually managed to flee.
PUK officials have frequently complained to Mukhtar
about the news Web site Kurdistanpost, which is run
by Mukhtar’s brother in Sweden. The Web site often
publishes critical news and incendiary commentaries
about Kurdish officials. PUK officials have also
accused Mukhtar of providing the Web site with news
and information, the journalist said.
Nabaz Goren, Hawlati, Awene, Livin: On the evening
of March 19, five armed men wearing military-style
uniforms bundled Goren into a waiting pickup as he
left the Writers Union Club in downtown Arbil. Goren,
a writer who contributes articles to several
independent Iraqi Kurdish newspapers including the
weeklies Hawlati and Awene, was blindfolded and
driven to a remote area about a half hour’s drive
from the city, the journalist told CPJ. The men
removed Goren from the car and began beating him
with a metal rod and rifle butts while warning him
to stop writing. Local security officials informed
him the next day that an investigation was under
way, but no one has been apprehended. Prior to the
attack, Goren had harshly accused Iraqi Kurdish
leaders of mismanagement in several articles and had
been involved in a personal dispute with a KDP media
official, he said.
CPJ will publish a complete report on its mission
findings in early 2008.
cpj org
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