KRG supports press freedom and is keen on its professionalism: PM Barzani

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Masrour Barzani, on Monday received the head and members of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate Council.

During the meeting, the chief of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, Azad Hamad Amin, and members of the Syndicate Council presented an overview of the Syndicate’s work and its activities, “indicating that although the media enjoys freedom in the Kurdistan Region, [it] needs to be reorganized in both legal and professional terms to reduce media disorder,” according to a statement on the KRG website.

Barzani affirmed the KRG’s support for Kurdistan’s journalists and media personnel and for journalistic work in the Region.

The prime minister also “recalled the role and importance of journalists in educating society and assisting the government in diagnosing problems and violations, for the purpose of finding solutions to them, correcting and improving the experience of governance in Kurdistan, noting that freedom of expression is one of the basic pillars of any progressive society,” the statement said.

He stressed that the KRG had provided the media with everything needed to support freedom of expression in order to play an effective role in society, and also indicated that “the media in Kurdistan should not allow the sacred profession of journalism to be used to defame charges unfairly and undermine societal peace,” the statement added.

“The Kurdistan Regional Government supports freedom of the press in Kurdistan in various ways, so that Kurdistan’s journalists can perform professionally and away from non-professional agendas, in a manner that is in the public interest and preserves national achievements,” Barzani concluded.

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly