Rights group slams Kurdistan Region’s ‘unfair’ trials of journalists, activists on Kurdish journalism day

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Human Rights Watch slammed the “unfair” trials of five journalists and activists in the Kurdistan Region on the first official Kurdish Journalism Day, saying they contribute to the Region’s “worsening reputation”.

The watchdog issued the statement ahead of an imminent appeals decision on the sentencing of two journalists and three activists to six years in jail on the much criticized charges of “endangering the national security of the Kurdistan Region.”

“Flawed trials in the Kurdistan Region are nothing new,” said Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, “but flaunting the most basic principles of justice to punish people for allegedly planning protests is a new low.”

Freedom of the press in the Kurdistan Region has been constantly questioned by local and international media watchdogs, especially recently, following rights violations including the imprisonment of journalists known for their anti-establishment writing.

Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani met with the chairman of the board of directors at Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy earlier this month to discuss press freedom, saying they had “productive and open talks”.

Five defendants - Sherwan Sherwani, Shvan Saeed, Ayaz Karam, Hariwan Issa, and Guhdar Zebari – detained for several months, were found guilty and sentenced to six years after a highly contentious trial in February.

“These recent convictions only further compounds the Kurdistan Region's worsening reputation as a place where people can face unfair criminal trials merely for critiquing government policies they object to and expressing concerns about the political elites,” Wille said in the statement released on the first official Kurdish Journalism Day.

Human Rights Watch says authorities continue to hold Badal Barwary, an activist, and Omid Haji, a journalist, despite the court having ruled that there was insufficient evidence to try them.

The Kurdistan Region's parliament on Wednesday designated April 22 as the official day for Kurdish journalism, 123 years after the first Kurdish newspaper was issued.

Iraq ranks 18 from the bottom of a list of countries classified by their regard to freedom of the press.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Tuesday criticized the Kurdistan Regional Government’s regard to press freedom, saying there are “no limits to the persecution of journalists who criticise its ruling families. They are jailed on charges of spying or endangering state security on the basis of confessions extracted under torture or by means of threats.”

The KRG’s International Advocacy Coordinator, Dindar Zebari, classified RSF’s allegations against the regional government as “vague and not supported by details.”

“Arbitrary arrests, forced disappearance, torture, and obtaining illicit confessions from detainees are vicious practices that are alien to the democratic values by which KRG governs. And the allegations that claim the contrary are apparently based on off-beam findings,” he said in a statement sent to Rudaw English on Wednesday.

The US state department also slammed the Iraqi federal government and the KRG’s allowance for the freedom of expression, saying their “oversight and censorship sometimes interfered with media operations, at times resulting in the closure of media outlets, restrictions on reporting, denying access to public information, and interference with internet service.”

Rights group slams Kurdistan Region’s ‘unfair’ trials of journalists, activists on Kurdish journalism day

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