Kurdistan Region’s Journalist Syndicate urges PM Kadhimi to ‘intervene’ as Kurdish journalists face harassment in disputed territories

The president of Kurdistan Journalist Syndicate, Azad Hamad Amin, in an open memorandum to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Monday, urged him to intervene to stop the harassment Kurdish journalists face during their coverage in disputed territories between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The president of Kurdistan Journalist Syndicate, Azad Hamad Amin, in an open memorandum to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Monday, urged him to intervene to stop the harassment Kurdish journalists face during their coverage in disputed territories between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

The memorandum comes after Iraqi Federal Police recently detained and questioned Kurdistan 24 correspondent Hemin Dalo and his cameraman Nawzad Mohammed. The team was near Kirkuk’s Zanqar village, where they reported on recent crop fires that destroyed hundreds of acres of farmers’ lands in the area.

Read More: Media advocacy groups condemn detention of Kurdistan 24 team in Kirkuk, call for investigation

The violations that security forces commit against Kurdish journalists include “physical assaults, arrest, detention, verbal harassments, and seizure of their equipment,” Amin explained. He added that these acts violate the Iraqi constitution, domestic laws, and international laws.

What exacerbates the work of Kurdish journalists in these areas, Amin added, is the “issuance of verbal charges of terrorism.”

He also urged the newly appointed prime minister to “immediately intervene to stop the violations against [Kurdish] journalists covering events in the area,” stressing the need to provide a safe environment for the journalists to be able to work freely.  

On Saturday, the Metro Center, a Kurdistan Region-based group for journalist rights and advocacy, “denounced the Iraqi federal police’s treatment of the Kurdistan 24 channel team,” the entity said in a statement, demanding that the security forces end their “antagonistic” behavior in the disputed territories.

The Iraqi advocacy group issued a similarly condemnatory statement, saying it considers the detention of journalists without an arrest warrant “a violation of the freedom of the press.” It also expressed concerns about apparently repeated abuses of journalists by members of the security forces.

Both organizations called on the Iraqi government, now led by former journalist Mustafa al-Kadhimi, to launch an investigation into the incident and hold those who abuse journalists to account.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany