BARCELONA, Spain—While Kurdish leaders call press freedom essential for progress, journalists in Kurdistan complain they risk prison, attacks or death for speaking out.
“Iraqi Kurdistan may seem calm compared with much of the Middle East, but the media are vulnerable whenever internal political tensions flare,” according to a report by the US-based and independent Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
“Amid impunity for anti-press attacks, including murder and arson, journalists say they must self-censor on topics like religion, social inequality, and corruption associated with powerful officials,” said the report, titled “Mountain of Impunity Looms Over Kurdistan Journalists.”
It was released as Kurdish President Massoud Barzani marked the anniversary of the first Kurdish newspaper, published in Cairo in 1898, by calling for guarantees of safety for journalists.
He said that a free press is essential for political, social, economic progress and strengthening the democratic foundations of society.
Barzani said that political parties should let the media remain independent, and that journalists should for their part remain objective and abide by professional ethics.
“I ask the government, concerned institutions and the journalists syndicate to guarantee the safety and life of journalists,” he said.
The CPJ report, meanwhile, documented several attacks on journalists, perhaps the most gruesome last December on Kawa Garmyani, who was killed after publishing several reports alleging corruption among Kurdish politicians, particularly those in the powerful Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Garmyani, head of the monthly Rayel, was shot dead outside his home in Kalar. Reports said Mahmoud Sangawi, a member of the PUK and an army general, was the prime suspect. Sangawi was arrested last January and quickly released on lack of evidence.
The CPJ noted that over the past several years nearly 700 attacks on journalists, including threats, harassment, beatings, detentions, intimidation and arson had been locally documented. “Most of the attacks have gone unpunished,” it said.
The report added that attacks against journalists peaked in 2011, when at least four journalists were shot and wounded. It said that the local Metro Center to Defend Journalists had documented an unprecedented 359 attacks on journalists and media organizations in that year. The year after, there were 132 documented attacks on journalists, and in 2013 there were 193.
According to the report, government officials claim that the decline in attacks is indicative of more deeply rooted democracy and increased tolerance for dissent.
The CPJ pointed out that the law to protect journalists in Kurdistan is progressive compared with those in other Middle East nations, but falls short of international standards because of vaguely worded prohibitions.
One of the most emblematic attacks on Kurdistan’s press involved a student journalist, 23-year-old Sardasht Osman, who was abducted in May 2010, after writing a tongue-in-cheek article about the family of President Barzani.
Osman attacked widening income inequality and wondered whether he might escape his poor origins by marrying one of Barzani’s daughters. He had received multiple anonymous threats after publishing the article.
The CPJ report issued a series of recommendations for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), among them thorough investigation of all unsolved attacks on journalists. It called for training and education of judiciary and security officials to ensure no journalist is illegally detained in relation to his or her work.
