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Iraqi Kurdistan media bill draws protest,
will Massoud Barzani sign the bill ?
15.12.2007
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The
bill must be approved by the Kurdistan president
Massoud Barzani, before it goes into effect. Will
Barzani sign the bill?
December
15, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Lawmakers in Iraq's self-ruled Kurdistan region
approved a measure that would allow courts to accuse
journalists of "vague offenses" relating to
terrorism or disturbing security, drawing protests
Friday from Kurdish journalists and an international
media advocate.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said
the bill, approved
Tuesday in a sparsely attended parliamentary
session, could be "exploited by pro-government
judges to put critical newspapers out of business."
Asos Herdi, editor of the weekly Kurdish newspaper
Awena in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan's cultural capital,www.ekurd.net
accused the major
Kurdish parties that supported the measure of
hypocrisy, saying their slogans for freedom "are
only empty words."
"This new law will send journalists to prison, ban
newspapers and allow for outrageous fines under
various pretexts," Herdi said at a protest Friday in
Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. He
said any journalist who writes about terrorism could
be accused of a crime under the measure.
The bill must be approved by the Kurdistan
president, Massoud Barzani, before it goes into
effect.
Among the lawmakers who opposed the measure was
Suzan Shihab of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Of
the semiautonomous region's 111 lawmakers, only 57
attended the session. Of those, 11 abstained and
seven voted against it.
"This law means silencing people, journalists, and
intellectuals who usually criticize the government
and its mistakes," said Shihab, who attended
Friday's protest.www.ekurd.net
There was a similar
gathering in Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdistan's capital.
Shihab called on Barzani to veto the measure.
Under the measure, journalists can be prosecuted in
counterterrorism courts, which could bring the death
penalty, and newspapers can be shut down for up to
six months and face fines up to $8,200.
"Given the tenuous financial and political situation
of independent papers - several operate at losses or
barely break even - the bill's elastic language
could be exploited by pro-government judges to put
critical newspapers out of business," the Committee
to Protect Journalists said in a statement Friday.
The Kurdistan government has said a new media law is
needed to replace the current law, which dates to
the era of Saddam Hussein, but has otherwise not
commented on the specifics of the measure.
Aso Jabbar, a government critic who attended
Friday's protest, said the law would not make him
back down.
"We shouldn't be frightened of prisons," he said.
"Putting me in prison for my views is an honor."
In
December 19, 2005,
Kurdish-Austrian writer Dr Kamal Said Qadir, also
known as Kamal Karim,www.ekurd.net
was sentenced last year
to 30 years in prison for defamation in articles he
had published on Kurdish websites criticizing the
KDP and Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani, whom he
accused of corruption and abuse of power. Qadir was
eventually pardoned and released.
AP
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