NRT TV employees continue to resign over anti-referendum campaign

Both NRT London Bureau Chief Sarhang Hars and NRT Correspondent in Paris Halgurd Samad announced their resignations on their Facebook accounts, stating “We are no longer employees of NRT and have ended our work with the channel.”

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Employees continue to quit the Kurdish TV channels of NRT following the announcement of the ‘No for Now’ campaign against the Kurdistan Region referendum on independence scheduled for September 25.

On August 8, the founder and owner of the NRT TV channels Shaswar Abdulwahid, a businessman and the owner of a media conglomerate which includes NRT TV, along with other politicians announced the campaign of ‘No for Now’ in opposition to the referendum, calling for postponing the event.

On Thursday, both NRT London Bureau Chief Sarhang Hars and NRT Correspondent in Paris Halgurd Samad announced their resignations on their Facebook accounts, stating “We are no longer employees of NRT and have ended our work with the channel.”

They hinted that the television fails to be unbiased. “We wish success to our former colleagues, and we hope they make ‘impartiality’ as the principle of their future works.”

Before those two, many other NRT employees have resigned, including the presenters Shwan Harki and Kajin Hassan who publicly announced their resignations to protest NRT’s opposition to the referendum.

The media outlet is often criticized by the people of the Kurdistan Region and Kurdish officials for having an agenda which strongly favors the Iraqi government and Iran over the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Despite the initial attention that the anti-referendum campaign received, the ‘Yes’ vote is expected to win the majority.

In 2005, an informal referendum was conducted in the Kurdistan Region alongside the parliamentary elections. The ‘Yes’ for independence won 98.9 percent of total votes.

Although Baghdad and the neighboring countries along with the US oppose the timing of the upcoming referendum, senior Kurdish officials have repeated that the people of the Kurdistan Region have been waiting for 100 years for the right to self-determination, asking those who claim Sep. 25 is not suitable, “if not now, then when?”

“Those who oppose the timing of the referendum might look at it from the perspective of their interests and benefits alone, not that of the people of the Kurdistan Region,” Masrour Barzani, the Kurdistan Region Security Chief previously said during an exclusive interview with Kurdistan 24.

Independence has been a long-awaited dream of the Kurds all around the world who are arguably the largest stateless ethnic group in the globe.

The President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani has repeatedly emphasized that the future independent Kurdistan will not be exclusively for the Kurds, but all the ethnic and religious groups living in the region, including Christians, Turkmen, and Arabs, will benefit from it.