ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Thursday that they have urged Kurdistan Region’s President Nechirvan Barzani to prevent the murder of journalists in areas controlled by his government.
Barzani met with several journalists, trade unionists and researchers from the Middle East, Belgium and France on Tuesday. People from around the world traveled to Erbil to discuss the situation of journalists in both Iraq and Kurdistan Region as part of an international conference on journalism ethics.
Salar Othman, undersecretary of KRG's Ministry of Culture and Youth, said in a ministry speech that the journalism ethics conference was meant to instill "patriotism" of Kurdistan within media work, and at the same time to "widen the field" of freedoms for journalists.
Murder with Impunity
Anthony Bellanger, General Secretary of the IFJ, told President Barzani that the figures for impunity for the murder of journalists in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in particular “remain scandalously high.’
In an IFJ press release published after the meeting with President Barzani, Bellanger is quoted as saying, "Despite our efforts, despite our alerts, Iraq is one of the worst places for journalists in the world. We need strong actions today, a real political stand so that impunity is no longer the gangrene of our profession in your country."
The press release stated that more than 400 journalists have been killed throughout Iraq since 2003.
“Many [journalists] lost their lives fulfilling their duty to inform on the front line in the face of terrorism, but many have also been killed on the street or on their doorstep because their reports were considered embarrassing,” said the IFJ statement.
A number of journalists, such as Kawa Garmiyani and Sardasht Osman, have been killed in Kurdistan Region in recent years. The cases have not been solved, and the slain journalists’ families claim that powerful Kurdish political interests are behind the murders.
On the evening of December 5, 2013, Kawa Garmiyani, the editor in chief of Rayal Magazine and a reporter working for independent Kurdish media outlet Awene, was killed by gunmen who had pulled up outside of his house in the town of Kalar, south of Sulaimani.
Garmiyani had written multiple reports about the corruption of officials in Kalar, which is part of the Garmiyan Region. The real culprit has never been held to account, although a recording did emerge of Mahmoud Sangawi, prominent Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader and head of the Peshmerga’s Garmiyan Front, threatening and insulting Garmiyani on a phone call before he was murdered.
Sardasht Osman was a freelance Kurdish journalist and a student at Salahadin University of Erbil when he was seized by unidentified gunmen on campus. He had written about corruption in Kurdistan Region.
Osman was later found dead in in Mosul, far from Erbil in Nineveh province. Authorities claimed he had been abducted and killed by the al-Qaeda linked Ansar al-Islam extremist group.
In a meeting with journalists, KRG Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani called for the implementation of Law Number 35 of the Year 2007. The law was an attempt to "regulate the work of journalism in a manner compatible with the spirit of the era and its developments."
The law, which details fines and punishments for journalists and media outlets, also contains articles designed to protect journalists.
"Journalists are independent, and in the process of doing their professional work, there is no other power besides legal on them," section one of Article 7 reads.
"The opinions expressed by a journalist, or the information a journalist publishes, cannot become a cause to destroy the life of journalists, harm them or their rights," section two reads.
President Barzani’s office released a statement stressing the importance of “preserving the freedom of the press and free speech as one of the main basics of democracy.”
A Regulatory Body
During their meeting, IFJ General Secretary Bellanger reminded the Kurdish President that the IFJ encourages the creation of a regulatory body within the profession, as stipulated in Article 16 of the IFJ Global Charter of Ethics.
"It is not possible, here and everywhere, that a Press Council or Supreme Media Council - including a press council, a press card commission etc - allows members of the government in its composition. These bodies must be independent, open to the public, with the participation of journalists and employers. No more, no less,” added the General Secretary.
Kurdistan Journalist Syndicate (KJS) is the body that has come up with a proposal for a body to regulate journalism in the Kurdistan Region. KJS presented their proposal for the creation of a Supreme Media Council to the Kurdistan Parliament’s Committee on Culture, Civil Society, Sports and Youth on December 8.
The idea of such a proposal, however, has not been met with favor among Kurdish journalists, many of whom question the Kurdistan Journalism Syndicate’s independence from ruling parties in the KRG.
“On Sunday we had a meeting with KRG deputy PM and we told them journalists do not need a Supreme Media Council and that will restrict the freedom of press. What has damaged press in KRI, is a massive number of media outlets funded by politicians, working as propaganda machine,” Rebaz Majeed, a Kurdish Voice of America journalist, said in a tweet on Tuesday.
“The Kurdistan ruling parties & their affiliated Journalists Syndicate proposed Kurdistan Supreme Media Council & passing it [through] Kurdistan parliament to further [curb] free journalists & free expression,” tweeted Dana Taib Menmy, a Kurdish journalist writing for al-Monitor.
Diminishing press freedom
According to the KJS, in the first half of 2019 there were 10 cases of journalists getting arrested in Kurdistan Region. There were 4 cases of journalists being abused or assaulted, in addition to one case of physical beating and one case of a TV channel being closed.
The latest figures from the Independent Metro Center for Journalist Rights and Advocacy reported 264 complaints registered in 2018, with 349 violations against media and journalists in Kurdistan. There were 24 cases of apprehension without court order, 13 cases of beatings, and 12 injuries.
Kurdistan is far from the only place where members of the press are at risk. A recent report from the Committee to Protect Journalists stated, “The number of journalists imprisoned globally for their work in 2019 remained near record highs, as China tightened its iron grip on the press and Turkey, having stamped out virtually all independent reporting, released journalists awaiting trial or appeal.”
“Authoritarianism, instability, and protests in the Middle East led to a rise in the number of journalists locked up in the region,” added the CPJ, with Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia being among countries with the most journalists in prison.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 250 journalists have been imprisoned globally in 2019, and the anti-media trend is not relenting as authoritarianism increases around the world.
