All four Iraqi journalists were killed in protests, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said. Three were killed by a gunshot to the head while covering protests, and one was killed trying to flee from clashes between security forces and protesters.
The targeting and the deliberate murder of journalists worldwide has seen a 21 percent increase in the year 2020 compared to last year, RSF said. Fifty journalists were killed worldwide in the year 2020.
“Some may think that journalists are just the victims of the risks of their profession, but journalists are increasingly targeted when they investigate or cover sensitive subjects,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “What is being attacked is the right to be informed, which is everyone’s right.”
Two of the journalists were killed in Basra. Prominent Iraqi journalist Ahmed Abdul Samad and his cameraman Safaa al-Ghali were shot dead by unknown gunmen in their car while covering Iraq’s ongoing protests for Dijlah TV in January.
Yussef Sattar, a journalist and activist, was killed during protests in Baghdad, also in January.
Hunar Rasool, a Kurdish journalist for Gali Kurdistan TV died from injuries in Ranya, Sulaimani province on August 12 after he tried to escape clashes between protesters and security forces.
Two “media assistants” – Nizar Thanoun and Husham al-Hashimi – were shot dead in Baghdad by unidentified assailants in Baghdad in 2020, RSF said.
Iraq came third only to Somalia and Syria in the 2020 index for unpunished journalist killings in a report published in October by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
According to the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), 2,658 journalists were killed worldwide between 1990 and 2020, of which 340 were from Iraq – with second-place Mexico recording 178 journalist deaths over the same 30-year period.
Journalists in the Kurdistan Region are also at risk of arrests, imprisonment, death and kidnapping.
Sherwani Amin Sherwani was arrested at his home in the Erbil suburb of Sebiran on December 7, his wife, Rugesh Izzaddin Muheiadin told the CPJ. The ten police officers confiscated two of the journalist’s laptops, notebooks, and other work materials. Muheiadin said they were served with a warrant for Sherwani’s arrest, but neither the warrant nor the officers brought a charge against the journalist.
Journalist Guhdar Zebari was arrested in Akre, Duhok province on October 27 and taken to an unknown location after receiving threatening messages, the CPJ reported.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani, the CPJ expressed “grave concern regarding the recent deterioration of press freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan”, and urged Barzani to allow local media outlets and journalists to “work freely and safely without fear of reprisal”.
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