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Talabani Supporters Rally Over Media
Controversy
5.4.2008
By Azeez Mahmood and Rebaz Mahmood in Sulaimaniyah
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PUK officials back president’s much-criticised
attempt to muzzle party members.
April 5, 2008
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region 'Iraq, --
Close allies of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani have
defended a controversial order barring members of
his party from publicly criticising Kurdish parties.
Journalists and reformers in Talabani’s Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, PUK, have attacked the
directive, arguing it is undemocratic and will
undermine press freedom in the region.
Abid Aref, editor-in-chief of the independent
newspaper Hawlati, said the order “will impact
democratic development and the media’s work in
Kurdistan. We’re going to lose sources because they
will be afraid to talk”.
“This directive will close the door to the modern
political practice of transparency,” said Twana
Osman an independent journalist. “The party is
….hiding its ugly sides and secrets.”
But allies of the president have rallied around the
president.
Emad Ahmed, a member of the PUK politburo, said the
leader was entitled to issue the order.
"This is a party decision, Talabani is the secretary
general of the party and he has every right to give
instruction to the members in a way that it is in
the interest of the people and the party," he said.
The directive, which was published on the Kurdish
news website Sbeiy on March 29, threatens party
members with possible expulsion if they publicly
criticise the PUK or the Kurdistan Democratic Party,www.ekurd.net
KDP, particularly in
interviews with “unfriendly” or “spiteful”
newspapers.
The order applies to all PUK members, who could face
trial in party courts if they speak badly of the PUK
to the press. The maximum sentence would be
expulsion from the party, according to the
directive.
While the order gives PUK members permission to
freely critique the party in committee meetings and
party centres, it maintains that public criticism
“damages unity”.
Ahmed said the order was necessary to ensure that
members put party interests first.
"In every political party there are rights and
duties. It is not possible to work within a party
and have rights without doing your duties, [or to]
reveal private party issues to outsiders,” he said.
He pointed out that under the directive, members are
entitled to express themselves within the party
freely, and can also publicly discuss any other
non-party issues.
"This decision will serve the PUK and it will not
undermine transparency, because transparency is not
to talk whenever and wherever you get a chance," he
added.
Azad Jundiani, head of PUK’s central media bureau,
also defended the order.
“Some members of the party, even high-ranking
members, want to hurt the party,” he said. “I’m
totally for Talabani’s decision.”
IWPR attempted to reach Talabani's press office for
a comment but was unable to get through.
The PUK and KDP dominate power in Iraqi Kurdistan,
with the independent Kurdish media, which is based
in the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah, highly
critical of local and regional authorities run by
the parties.
Turmoil inside of the PUK has made headlines in the
local press in recent months as party members have
spoken out about internal power struggles, reforms
and corruption. The party is also split over whether
members who collaborated with Saddam Hussein’s
regime should be ousted.
Many of those pushing for reforms are loyal to
Nawshirwan Mustafa, a PUK founder who built a
powerful media organisation after leaving the party
in 2006.
Some journalists speculated that Talabani issued the
order after Mustafa’s flagship newspaper Rozhnama
published an interview with PUK member Jamal Miraza
Aziz in which he accused Kurdish leaders of
corruption.
Jundiani said that the directive was not related to
any one interview.
“It’s been accumulating for a long time,” he said,
in reference to the party members’ criticisms. “This
is a way to make [PUK members] stop bashing the
party in newspapers.”
“This isn’t a big deal. The party is organising
itself. [The directive] is not anti-democratic.”
But a member of the PUK, who spoke on the condition
on anonymity, disagreed, calling the decision
“scary”. Though he said that while it would
"suppress opposition voices" temporarily, it would
not prove effective long-term.
“Some members might be punished, but people can’t
just keep silent forever,” he added.
Independent journalism in Sulaimaniyah has
flourished since the Ba’ath regime was ousted five
years ago. Even virulent critics of the PUK
acknowledge that it is generally more open than the
KDP. The KDP controls the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of
Erbil, and journalists often complain about the lack
of access to official and unofficial sources there.
Khabat Abdullah, editor-in-chief of the Sbeiy
website, which Mustafa also owns, said of the
Talabani order, “For a party that claims to be a
socialist democratic party, this isn’t just a
tragedy. It’s also comical.”
The Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, an organisation
loyal to the government, has yet to comment on
Talabani’s order. Zirak Kamal, secretary of the
union, said it will announce its position once it
has evidence that the decision restricts the media’s
work.
“This is a party decision directed at party members,
not independent [newspapers],” he said.
The directive is not Talabani’s first challenge to
the Kurdish media. In January, the president sued
Hawlati for defamation and republishing fabricated
information.
Hawlati had published a translated article from the
American Enterprise Institute that accused Talabani
and Kurdistan Regional Government president Masood
Barzani of amassing fortunes. If convicted, Aref
could face six months to one year in prison.
Azeez Mahmood and Rebaz Mahmood are IWPR-trained
journalists in Sulaimaniyah.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, iwpr
net
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