ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US Consulate in Erbil discussed the importance of media freedom and the need to provide a healthy, anti-discriminatory landscape to journalists in a visit to Rudaw Media Network on Friday, while expressing support to media institutions.
“We heard concerns from Rudaw about the media landscape including politically-motivated discrimination against journalists,” the consulate said in a statement during a visit by its staff to Rudaw, stressing the need to provide “a more transparent relationship between government and media.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been heavily criticized for its alleged mistreatment of journalists, as well as imposing restrictive measures on the press. Doubtful trials have cast shade on the KRG’s public image, with many organizations calling for press freedom to be respected.
Despite backlash from international watchdogs and the public, the Kurdistan Journalists’ Syndicate’s annual report of 2021 showed that recorded cases of violations against journalists in the Region fell by a third compared to the previous year’s figure.
“The US is committed to supporting #media_freedom and is working with civil society, media and government to promote a more transparency relationship between government and media,” the US consulate added.
Amnesty International last year criticized the Kurdistan Region’s authorities in a statement, stressing they “do not have an obligation to uphold basic human rights of freedom of expression, assembly, and press freedom.”
Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), expressed serious concern regarding the Kurdistan Region’s behavior towards journalists and activists in HRW’s annual World Report 2022, published in January.
Iraq ranks 163rd out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, according to a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The lives of journalists in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are at risk while covering protests and investigating corruption, according to RSF, who further stated that journalists are at risk of being “harassed, abducted, physically attacked, or even killed by unidentifiable militias.”
