January
6, 2011
PARIS,
France,— Reporters Without Borders voices its
support for a demonstration being organized on
Wednesday in Darbandikhan, 65 km southeast of
Sulaimaniyah, to defend two newspaper columnists and
academics who are being sued by the ruling Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) led by Massoud Barzani and,
in general, to defend media freedom and free
expression in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
The two Kurdish academics, Mariwan Wrya Qani and
Aras Fatah, are being prosecuted over the column
they wrote jointly for the 8 June 2010 issue of the
independent newspaper Awene entitled “What did the
Kurdistan regional president say?”
It referred to an address that President Massoud
Barzani had made a few days earlier to the regional
parliament in which he threatened all those who did
not respect the government’s red lines or questioned
the political status quo, in which Barzani’s KDP and
the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (KDP) together
control the regional government. Read the article in
English: http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc010511AM.html
Qani, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, and
Fatah, a sociologist, usually write their own weekly
columns in Awene, but they wrote this one together.
It was “far from being defamatory or insulting,”
said Awene editor Shwan Muhammad, who has had to
deposit 2 million Iraqi dinars (1,300 euros) in
bail.
“It was not a factual
report or investigative article. It was an analysis
published on the newspaper’s opinion page.”
In an interview for Reporters Without Borders, Qani
voiced concern about the press freedom situation in
Iraqi Kurdistan. “The KDP has dictatorial
tendencies,” he said. “It wants to silence all
criticism (...) The KDP clearly wants to reduce
Kurdish society to silence and monopolize the
political arena.”
Qani added: “The pressure the KDP is currently
putting on the region’s journalists and media is
part of this plan (...) I fear that the party will
use all possible means to achieve its ends and to
neutralize and eliminate independent media. They
have embarked on an all-out war and the danger is
real.”
Another Awene journalist, Sat Muhammad, is also
being sued for an op-ed piece he wrote for the same
issue headlined “Lion at home, fox abroad.” It
criticised those who took a hard line with
Kurdistan’s own citizens and journalists but were
relaxed and friendly towards foreigners.
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The two Kurdish academics, Mariwan Wrya Qani (L) and
Aras Fatah, are being prosecuted over the column
they wrote jointly for the 8 June 2010 issue of the
independent newspaper Awene entitled “What did the
Kurdistan regional president say?”. Photo: Awene.com
A Kurdish demo in Iraqi Kurdistan to defend two
newspaper columnists and academics who are being
sued by the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). |
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