Media watchdog calls on KRG to respect press rights

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A local journalist rights watchdog on Tuesday called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to stop barring media outlets from covering government events, hours after two mainstream media outlets were banned from attending a recent press conference chaired by an official representing the government, raising concerns of violations of press rights.

Over 20 media outlets attended the press conference held by Dindar Zebari, KRG’s coordinator for international advocacy, on Tuesday that highlighted the latest international reports on the Kurdistan Region, including the freedom of the press, as well as the recent human rights developments in the Region. 

Rudaw Media Network and the opposition TV channel NRT were barred from covering the briefing.

Media watchdog Metro Center said Zebari’s office had previously sent outlets an invitation to attend the presser, “but for the organizers of the press conference, Mr. Organizer, NRT and Rudaw are deprived of this courtesy,” the center’s director Diyari Mohammed sarcastically said, while referring to the presser, in a statement.

The center described the move as “illegal” as it withheld journalists from practicing their right of attending press conferences, according to the Press Law in the Kurdistan Region.

“We at Metro Center reaffirm that preventing both channels, Rudaw and NRT, from attending the press conference of the coordinator of international advocacy does not have any excuse other than that breaking the law to some prominent personalities is as easy as drinking water,” the statement added.

Rudaw English reached out to Zebari, but he was not immediately available for comment.

The incident comes a day after foreign diplomatic missions in the Kurdistan Region, including Canada, America, and Germany, welcomed the United Nations recent report on the status of freedom of expression that slammed the Kurdish government for doubtful trials, and raising human rights concerns while noting the “concrete steps” that have been taken by the Kurdish authorities "toward the protection of the right to freedom of expression." 

The report was based on observation of trial hearings in the four cases and private detention interviews with individuals concerned in the cases, along with interviews with “judges, defense lawyers, prosecutors, detention authorities and other relevant interlocutors, such as civil society activists and families of detainees.”

Zebari’s office issued a statement at the time, saying “while we don't think it accurately portrays the situation in Kurdistan, we appreciate the UN's commitment to discussion.”  

Earlier in November, an Erbil court handed jail sentences to four Duhok detainees who were among dozens arrested during anti-government protests in 2020. Multiple cases have worked their way through the courts in connection with the protests. The first group to be put on trial - Sherwan Sherwani, Shvan Saeed, Ayaz Karam, Hariwan Issa, and Guhdar Zebari - were found guilty of endangering national security and sentenced to six years in jail. Several others were released earlier this year on time served.  

The KRG has come under fire for the prosecutions. 

Crackdown on protests did not stop in Duhok as security forces arrested 603 protestors between November 21 and 26 last year, in Sulaimani province alone, according to the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). 

In June, Amnesty International published a public statement on what they called the “ongoing crackdown of protests by way of arbitrary arrests and harassment” in the Kurdistan Region. The statement concluded that “the KRG authorities have an obligation to uphold basic human rights of freedom of expression, assembly, and press freedom,” and called on authorities in the Kurdistan Region to “put an end to their ongoing crackdown of protests by way of arbitrary arrests and harassment.” 

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