“No Safe Cities for Journalists” .. Report Documenting Violations in Iraq

[size=52]“No Safe Cities for Journalists” .. Report Documenting Violations in Iraq[/size]

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Iraqi journalists are constantly harassed and violated
[size=45]It is still not safe for journalists to work in Iraq, as the Organization for Defending Press Freedom, an Iraqi organization, recorded 233 cases of attacks against Iraqi journalists in most Iraqi cities in its annual report titled “No Safe Cities for Journalists in Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]Cases of abuse, according to the organization, recorded an escalation in areas witnessing popular protests, such as the protests in Sulaymaniyah last November, which, according to the organization's records, witnessed 40 cases of violations against journalists.[/size]
[size=45]Among all these cases, the organization recorded 139 cases of beating, preventing and obstructing press coverage, 34 cases of arrest and detention, one assassination attempt, and kidnapping, 15 cases of closing channels and laying off employees, and 13 injuries to journalists while performing their journalistic duties.[/size]
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The Sulaymaniyah demonstrations recorded 40 cases of violations against journalists
[size=45]The capital, Baghdad, witnessed the highest number of violations during the year, with (66) cases of violations, and the Kurdistan region of Iraq came in second place, with (53) violation cases, and Kirkuk ranked third with (35) cases.[/size]
[size=45]The organization said that “there are governorates that have not recorded cases of violations, due to the displacement of journalists from them due to threats and prosecutions, and their leaving their governorates after the October 2019 demonstrations.”[/size]
[size=45]The head of the organization, journalist Mustafa Nasser, told Al-Hurra that "this statistic indicates the Iraqi authorities' indifference to the siege imposed by armed groups and power parties and trying to tighten it against the press and media."[/size]
[size=45]Dozens of press and media organizations operate in Iraq on different platforms, such as satellite and terrestrial channels, radio stations, newspapers, websites and social media pages.[/size]
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Journalist Ali Al-Makdam was kidnapped this year
[size=45]But Nasser says that this increase does not indicate the expansion of media freedom in the country, as some believe, but it is an “intended increase as a result of the ruling political forces, which are trying to increase the number of their media channels to restrict the free press.”[/size]
[size=45]"In general, even journalists who work in these media face restrictions in one way or another," he added.[/size]
[size=45]It also demanded that the security ministers be obliged to open an investigation in every case of a violation committed by the security member against the journalist, obstructing his coverage, or unlawfully confiscating his equipment, as a violation of the constitution.[/size]

“hidden” violations

[size=45]Iraqi journalist Issa Rahman says that "the violations that are being recorded are only the tip of the iceberg with regard to restricting journalistic and media work in Iraq."[/size]
[size=45]Rahman added to Al-Hurra website that there are "many violations that are not recorded, affecting everyone who tries to uncover political or humanitarian files that affect the active forces in the country," stressing that "the killing of a journalist or being threatened because of a file he is working on sends a message to hundreds of his colleagues that they They will suffer the same fate, but the statistics only record the killing of one journalist.”[/size]
[size=45]Rahman affirms, “The dismissal of a journalist, harassment, arrest, or confiscation of his tools also send the same message,” adding, “If there are 230 actual cases of violations, this means that there are hundreds of journalists who will remain silent for fear of the same fate.”[/size]

The problem of the “free” press

[size=45]Journalist Ziad Al-Masoudi told Al-Hurra that "the Iraqi press works within the directions of the financiers of rich institutions, expresses them, and attacks their opponents."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Masoudi added, "This is a big problem, because the number of workers in these institutions and the craftsmanship that they provide with the money they control makes it difficult to confront their messages, or to reach the public who may be deceived by what they publish."[/size]
[size=45]In addition to the weapons and influence owned by several groups in Iraq, Al-Masoudi says that the media weapon they own is also effective in silencing journalists who fear defamation if their investigations threaten the interests of these groups.[/size]
[size=45]"The statistics of the killing and kidnapping of journalists may be much greater, if the policy of intimidation had not been successful," Al-Masoudi says.[/size]
[size=45]The association issued recommendations stipulating the obligation of the future Iraqi government to protect the freedom of journalistic work, and to prosecute the killers of journalists and perpetrators of violations, and demanded the new parliament to pledge to amend the system of laws specific to freedom of the press, media and publication, and not to proceed with the discussion of any draft or law proposal without discussing it with the stakeholders, in addition To create a mechanism for financing the independent press through ministerial declarations to strengthen the independent press and not to support partisan media, as is happening now.”[/size]
[size=45]Iraq ranks 163 globally according to the Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders in 2021, and it is in the fifteenth place in the Arab world, after Somalia and Sudan, and before Algeria.[/size]
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