One of the first rules of good journalism is to check facts and confirm reports before they are published or aired. But that practice is completely ignored by most Kurdish media outlets, which are happy to report rumors and reports without bothering to verify them.
Reputable media organizations do their own reporting, but they also often pick up reports that have appeared elsewhere. However, when they do that, they either verify the report themselves, or trust the reputation of the original media outlet.
In Kurdistan, those rules of journalism are almost wholly ignored.
One such example was the allegation that Mansour Barzani, son of the Kurdistan Region’s President Massoud Barzani, had gambled away large sums of money in Dubai. The article supposedly first appeared in a Qatari magazine. I could not find that original anywhere, but Kurdish media were happy to pick up reports quoting that article, even though these appeared on Iraqi websites known to be hostile to Barzani and supportive of Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. There was no effort by the Kurdish media to contact the accused, Mansour Barzani.
Kurdish media often use Arabic news sources without checking their validity. For instance, most Kurdish media quoted the pro-Maliki Sumaria News when it claimed that a high-level member of the Iraqi Free Army had been captured.
Again, no one bothered to check the source.
This leaves little doubt that most Kurdish media are unprofessional, unethical, biased, and riddled by laziness and corruption. Because they purloin most of their content from other sources, they are easy to mislead, or use for misinformation and propaganda.
If I were to create a fake news website or blog and fabricate rumours about senior officials in Iraqi Kurdistan – especially about corruption -- the Kurdish media would immediately publish them without checking the source. Any country, group, official or person can easily abuse this system to spread propaganda and rumours through the Kurdish media.
It would be wiser and more professional for the Kurdish media to rely on their own reporters than to just copy news from English or Arabic news websites. They should either make an effort to confirm allegations, or not bother to report them at all.
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