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Legislative elections become nightmare for
journalists in Kurdistan: RSF
10.3.2010
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Reporters Without Borders: Legislative elections
become nightmare for independent and opposition
journalists
March 10, 2010
PARIS, —
Political rivalry and tension prompted by the 7
March legislative elections in Iraqi Kurdistan
resulted in a wave of violence against independent
and opposition journalists in the days preceding the
election and on election day itself. Journalists
describe it as the most harrowing period since the
US invasion of Iraq in April 2003.
“I am really concerned about these press freedom
violations, which were too many to count,” said
Halgurd Samad, the editor of Lvin, Iraqi Kurdistan’s leading
magazine. “There was no justification for all these
attacks.
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We want to help the
authorities to combat corruption and establish the
rule of law, but they want us to stop criticizing.
They attack us because they fear our power, they
fear that our coverage of corruption could fuel
opposition.”
Referring to the Kurdistan Democratic Party and
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the two parties that
have until now controlled the Kurdistan Regional
Government, Samad added: “The KDP and the PUK target
us because our reporting worries them. The
independent media are the only ones able to expose
the corruption, the power games and the political
deals.”
Zirak Kamal, from the Union of Kurdistan Journalists
and a media adviser to Kurdistan’s prime minister,
Dr. Barham Salih, also criticised the use of threats
and violence against the media even if he insisted
that the authorities were doing all they could rein
it in. “We ask all the journalists to file
complaints in the courts,” he said. “We are ready to
do our best to help them. The courts are independent
and everyone should respect their decisions.”
Kamal added: “The prime minister believes that
independent media are needed to protect our
democracy and national security. We are aware of the
recent incidents and we have decided to ask the
interior ministry to investigate them and identity
those responsible for the attacks.”
Election Day – 7 March
Polling day was a black day for press freedom with
many physical attacks and threats against
independent and opposition media. Reporters Without
Borders is aware of the following cases:
Kawa Garmiyani, the newspaper Awene’s reporter in
the city of Kalar, in Sulaimaniyah province, was
beaten by security forces and prevented from taking
photos.
In Halabja district, in Sulaimaniyah province, a
reporter for the opposition TV station KNN was
attacked by security forces while filming PUK
polling violations.
Independent and opposition journalists were
prevented from entering voting stations or taking
photos of them although the Independent High
Electoral Commission (IHEC) had said all journalists
had the right to do this.
Residents helped Rabar Uzer, a reporter for the
official website of the opposition Kurdistan Islamic
Union/Yekgirtu, to escape when PUK security forces
tried to confiscate his camera and beat him in the
city of Sulaimaniyah.
Akar Fars and Rzgar Muhsin, two journalists working
for Yekgirtu’s TV station in the Kurdish capital of
Erbil, were attacked and badly beaten by security
forces, who took their camera, defaced the station’s
logo and detained them for 20 minutes.
Ibrahim Ali, Livin’s correspondent in Erbil, was
prevented from taking photos although he had press
ID that had been approved by the IHEC.
Hemn Mamand, Awene’s reporter in Erbil, received a
threatening phone call from an unidentified phone
number.
Shwan Sidiq, a reporter for the magazine Civil, was
attacked by police in Erbil. “While I was busy
taking photos, security forces accosted me, roughed
me up and took my camera,” he told Reporters Without
Borders.
Journalists working for Yekgirtu-owned Speda TV in
Bazyan (a district of Kalar) were attacked by PUK
security forces.
Security forces harassed the journalists
accompanying Salahadin Bahadin, the head of Yekgirtu,
when he went to vote. Bahadin issued a statement
condemning the violence.
Rudaw’s reporter Ari Othman was attacked and injured
in Erbil by a group of men in civilian dress.
Anwar Sabah, a reporter for the satellite TV station
Payam, was prevented from filming election-day
incidents in Erbil.
Incidents during the run-up
to the elections
A crew working for KNN (a TV station owned by the
Movement for Democratic Change/Gorran, the leading
opposition coalition), was attacked by individuals
while trying to film an incident on the road from
Mahkmur to Erbil on 5 February. When the police
arrived, they arrested reporter Mariwan Mala Hasan
and cameraman Mufid and held them for several hours
for allegedly insulting the people who attacked
them, the Gorran website reported.
Three journalists with the weekly newspaper Hawlati
– Ara Ibrahim, Soran Ahmed and Surkew Mohamed – were
attacked by KDP gunmen when they took photos of KDP
militants threatening people on the street in
Sulaimaniyah on 4 March. Ibrahim told Reporters
Without Borders the gunmen hit them with the butts
of their Kalashnikov rifles, took their cameras and
detained them for half an hour at the KDP’s 4th
branch office in Sulaimaniyah. The journalists have
filed a complaint against the branch.
Awene reporter Hemn Mamand was attacked by KDP
security forces outside the citadel in Erbil while
photographing a KDP motorcade on the evening of 4
March. “When the motorcade passed in front of the
citadel,www.ekurd.netthey
stopped the traffic, causing a huge traffic jam,” he
told Reporters Without Borders. “I took some photos
for my newspaper but, when they saw me, they came
and beat me, insulting me and my newspaper. They
said I was a traitor for criticizing them. They took
my camera but returned it when I showed them my IHEC
press card.”
Two journalists working for Speda TV – Bilal Sa’id
and Ahmed Mir (who is aged less than 18) – were
assaulted by police in Kalar, in Sulaimaniyah
province, while filming PUK electoral fraud on the
evening of 4 March, when special voting took place.
“The police gave us a very bad beating, then took
our mobile phone and ID and have not yet returned
them,” Sa’id told Reporters Without Borders.
Another Speda TV crew was prevented from filming the
special voting on 4 March in the district of
Sharazur, in Sulaimaniyah province.
PUK security forces raided Dang (Voice), a Kalar-based
radio station that criticises the PUK, on 3 March,
smashing its equipment and then closing it down.
Station manager Jaza Muhamad told Reporters Without
Borders: “The security forces came and closed our
radio on the pretext that we do not have a legal
permit. We do have permission. The real reason is
our criticism of the status quo in Kurdistan and the
corrupt political parties. We are independent and
impartial. They broke most of our equipment. They
did that just to shut us up.”
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
rsf org
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