Sulaimani security forces close NRT offices amid ongoing protests
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Security forces in the city of Sulaimani closed an opposition TV channel in the early hours of Monday morning amid ongoing violent protests across the province.
“At 2:30am, a security force raided the main headquarters of the NRT channel in the city of Sulaimani and stopped its broadcast,” NRT said on its website. “The force padlocked the channel [offices] and stationed forces outside, seizing some of the equipment and destroying another part.”
NRT is owned by businessman Shaswar Abdulwahid, head of the New Generation opposition party.
The outlet claimed that one of its employees was detained and “mistreated” by the security forces before being released. Masked gunmen attacked the channel’s offices during 2011 anti-government protests, with Human Rights Watch condemning security forces for not taking action.
The Ministry of Culture on Sunday ordered NRT to stop broadcasting.
The outlet's TV channel must now screen a notice saying their broadcast has been cut for legal reasons.
Security forces also reportedly took over a building where programmes are filmed for Sterk TV and Aryen TV.
Sulaimani police refused to comment on the matter. Neither the KRG nor the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which oversees security in Sulaimani, have released statements on the NRT closure.
The closure of the channel comes amid ongoing protests over unpaid civil servant salaries, which have been met with violence from security forces. NRT claimed its reporters were detained and equipment seized while covering demonstrations in Sulaimani city last week.
Security forces have been deployed in large numbers and have used teargas to disperse protesters.
Protesters broke into a number of political party offices in Piramagrun, 40km northwest of Sulaimani city, on Sunday, shooting at police, according to Sulaimani’s High Security Committee.
“The security forces will not permit in any way for the peace to be disturbed …protecting government buildings and political party offices is part of their official duties and they are allowed to carry out their duties in a legal way.”
“We are now stuck inside the office and are surrounded by protesters trying to attack the office with stones and molotov cocktails,” Sherwan Agha, head of the town’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) office told Rudaw English on Sunday night. “We have to fight back, therefore, we have shot into the air, hoping to force protesters to retreat, but they are not stopping.”
The KRG is under intense economic and monetary pressure, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a drop in oil prices, lingering disagreements between Baghdad and Erbil and chronic economic mismanagement.
Erbil relies heavily on Baghdad to pay its civil servants. Baghdad refused to send the Kurdistan Region its budget share upon the passing of a controversial fiscal deficit bill last month. Funds for several prior months in 2020 have also not been sent to the KRG amid a prolonged oil-for-budget dispute.
“I am not only here for myself. It kills me when I see someone who cannot provide food for their family,” one protester told Rudaw last week.“
Local authorities in Sulaimani, as well as regional Iraqi Kurdistan authorities, must cease their endless harassment of local broadcaster NRT, which they have repeatedly targeted over its coverage of news in the area,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado in a statement released Tuesday, December 8, 2020. “Authorities must allow NRT to reopen its office in Sulaimani and reverse the suspension of its broadcasts immediately. NRT must be allowed to operate freely.”
Updated on December 8, 2020 with CPJ statement