ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) following the alleged detention of eight journalists at a protest in Duhok on May 16 and called on authorities to drop charges against four of them.
Several government employees, teachers, activists, and journalists were detained by security forces in Duhok on Sunday after organizing a protest against the government’s failure to pay public sector salaries on time.
One of the detained reporters told the CPJ that security forces seized their equipment the moment they arrived to cover the protest, accusing them of being troublemakers and saboteurs.
Speaking to Rudaw English on Tuesday, KRG deputy minister for international advocacy coordination Dindar Zebari claimed the protesters were arrested because they ignored coronavirus containment restrictions.
In a statement published on Monday, the New York-based CPJ said the arrest of eight reporters working for media outlets affiliated with the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) constituted an attack on press freedoms.
“Once again the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq have used the laws at their convenience to stamp out news coverage that makes the government uncomfortable,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado.
According to the Metro Center, a Kurdistan Region based group promoting press freedoms, those arrested include Speda TV reporters Azad Mukhtar, Ali Shali, and Akram Guli, and Speda TV cameraman Hajar Salman.
Director of the KIU-affiliated broadcaster Khabir TV, Maher Sakfan, director of the KIU-affiliated Khabir Radio, Ahmad Sharnakhi, reporter for KIU-affiliated news website PRS Media, Omed Haji, and Karwan Sadiq, a reporter for the PUK-affiliated broadcaster Gali Kurdistan were also detained, it said.
Ramadhan Artesey, the lawyer representing the journalists, told the CPJ via WhatsApp message that security forces also seized the journalists’ equipment, held Mukhtar, Salman, Sadiq, and Sali for several hours, and held the remaining four until Monday morning, when they were released on 2 million Iraqi dinars ($1,680) bail after being charged under Law 11 regulating the organization of demonstrations.
“We call on the Kurdistan Regional Government to drop the charges against Akram Guli, Maher Sakfan, Omed Haji, and Ahmed Sharnakhi, and allow all journalists to do their jobs freely and without fear of reprisal,” the CPJ’s Delgado said.
However, KRG spokesman Zebari claims only one unnamed journalist was arrested and insisted that press freedoms are respected in the Kurdistan Region.
“One journalist was arrested amid the protest, but he announced that he is a journalist in the final stages of investigation; after which he was solely released (not on bail),” Zebari told Rudaw English via email on Tuesday.
“Generally, the arrested protesters were not journalists, hence they were suspected of arranging a riot. Otherwise, the Kurdistan Press Law is fully active and it will be executed when journalists are involved,” he said.
“Practicing journalism in the Kurdistan Region is guaranteed and organized by law. In instances of maligning, spreading violence, vandalism, libel, however, Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 will be executed,” he added.
Concerns about the state of freedom of expression in the Kurdistan Region are routinely raised by local and international media watchdogs, with specific emphasis on press freedom following rights violations, including the imprisonment and death of journalists known for their anti-establishment writing.
Last month, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) documented a “wave of arrests and harassment of journalists under way in Iraqi Kurdistan since COVID-19 arrived in the region.”
The KRG health ministry recently asked the interior ministry to shut down Kurdish broadcaster NRT after the channel claimed the regional government was inflating coronavirus cases in order to prevent citizens from protesting.
“The security forces must stop using this crisis to carry out arrests without charge and without legitimate grounds,” said Sabrina Bennoui, head of RSF’s Middle East desk.
In his response to Rudaw English, Zebari claimed the protesters were arrested on Sunday because they failed to get the appropriate permissions from Duhok authorities for a public demonstration, broke coronavirus containment restrictions, and resisted police instructions to disperse.
“The protest was not given permission by the Duhok Governorate due to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Zebari said.
“Essentially, no protester was wearing masks and gloves, nor social distancing measures were implemented. Therefore, the Duhok Police wanted to dismantle the crowd, but the protesters did not comply.”
All 19 individuals were released on bail after being arrested under Article 240 of the Iraqi Penal Code for “violation of government regulation”, Zebari said.
Teachers are among many public sector workers in the Kurdistan Region who have gone months without receiving wages. The KRG says its coffers have been emptied by the collapse of world oil prices, the economic toll of the coronavirus lockdown, and the loss of its share of the Iraqi federal budget.
Zebari nevertheless characterized Sunday’s protest as a political stunt orchestrated by opponents of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led government.
“This protest was highly politicized. In fact, the majority of the protesters came from outside Duhok,” Zebari said.
“Moreover, senior members of the political bureaus of some opposition parties were directly involved, in addition to political cadres of some parties. Furthermore, on the basis of some information from the security apparatus, PKK affiliates influenced the protest in the phase of its preparation,” he claimed, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In return for its 12.67 percent share of the 2019 federal budget, the KRG was supposed to send Iraq’s state oil marketing company 250,000 barrels of oil per day, but has consistently failed to do so, claiming contractual arrangements and debts owed to foreign oil companies prevented the handover.
In mid-April, Iraq’s former Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi finally lost patience and called on the finance ministry to halt budget transfers to the KRG.
With Mustafa al-Kadhimi installed as Iraq’s new prime minister, Erbil and Baghdad are busy thrashing out a new oil-for-budget agreement.
The Kurdistan Region’s unpaid civil servants can only wait and hope for the best.
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