ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Region's parliament on Wednesday designated April 22 as the official day for Kurdish journalism, 123 years after the first Kurdish newspaper was issued.
“After 123, years it was approved by parliament as an official day,” the Chair of the Culture, Civil Society, Sports, and Youth committee Salma Fatih told Rudaw’s Bahroz Faraidoon following the parliament session on Wednesday.
The day has long been marked as a day celebrating Kurdish journalism but was made official on Wednesday after was approved by parliament, receiving 101 votes from MPs.
"Kurdistan," the first Kurdish-language newspaper, was first issued on April 22, 1898 in Cairo by prominent Kurdish writer and journalist Miqdad Madhat Badirkhan. It was published in the Kurmanji dialect.
The first Kurdish newspaper to be published in the Kurdistan Region was called Peshkawtn (Progress). It was printed in Sulaimani from 1920 to 1922 when Iraq was under British rule.
Freedom of the press in the Kurdistan Region has been constantly questioned by local and international media watchdogs, especially recently, following rights violations including the imprisonment of journalists known for their anti-establishment writing.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) came under fire earlier this year for jailing journalists, with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) saying the case showed the KRG "has finally dropped the pretense of caring about press freedom."
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Tuesday also slammed Iraq and the Kurdistan Region for a lack of press freedom and the growing dangers faced by journalists.
In its annual World Press Freedom report, RSF said there are “no limits to the persecution of journalists" who criticise ruling families in the Kurdistan Region.
"They are jailed on charges of spying or endangering state security on the basis of confessions extracted under torture or by means of threats.”
“The RSF ranking is predominantly based on an inclusive assessment of the status of press freedom in the whole country, rather than a discrete analysis based on regions. Additionally, the short report that relates to the ranking poses allegations against KRG that are vague and not supported by details,” the office of the KRG's Coordinator for International Advocacy said in response.
