CPJ calls on Syrian Kurdish authorities to release Zagros TV journalist
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Kurdish security forces in northern Syria to immediately release Zagros TV journalist.
Members of the Asayish, the security force for the de facto government of the Rojava region in northern Syria, detained Barzan Hussein Liani on May 13.
Liani's employer says he was detained when Asayish patrolled the area outside the town of Rmeilan, near Syria’s border with Turkey and northern Iraq.
"We at the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent press freedom advocacy organization, write to urge that you instruct the Kurdish forces under your control to release Barzan Hussein Liani, a journalist whom members of the Asayish security force detained more than a month and a half ago," CPJ wrote.
CPJ sources say no charge or reason for Liani's detention has been made public, and the journalist has been allowed only one brief visit from his wife.
The authorities in the Kurdish territory of Syria revoked the licenses of networks such as Syrian opposition station Orient in the past three years for allegedly repeatedly publishing "lies and systematic deception that incited violence, sparked internal discord, and spread racist ideology."
International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have in the past accused the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which controls Syria’s Kurdish Regions (Rojava), of denying freedom of speech and arresting journalists.
“The PYD and its henchmen have no qualms about arresting or even abducting news and information providers whom they see as too critical in order to silence them and intimidate the others,” said the France-based international NGO.
"CPJ is concerned about Liani's health, safety, and well-being. Both the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria and authorities governing the Cizire Canton, should work to secure Liani's immediate release and allow the journalist's lawyer and family to contact him," the statement read.