In Iraqi Kurdistan, riots lead to press freedom abuses

[thearabchildren]

"The recent spate of attacks on the press is a part of political score-settling between opposing political factions and their supporters," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "It is incumbent upon Kurdish authorities to prevent additional attacks on media and to ensure that the attacks that have already occurred are seriously investigated. Anything less constitutes an invitation for similar violence in the future."

Journalists in Kurdistan are frequently subjected to arbitrary arrests, threats, harassment, beatings, or confiscation or destruction of their equipment, CPJ research shows.

[alan131210]

the Islamic party (Yakgertu) started it but the Pres. has urged all sides to refrain from abusing one another.

[talsor]

I think the problem in Kurdistan is that we have too many the so called "journalists " . People tend to believe everything written in the news papers and considering that the media is divided among political parties arrests are expected . Any half educated kurd could get a licence and call himself a journalist and write what ever he wants without any code of conduct or verified sources thus comes the arbitrary arrests and law suits by the government against newspapers and magazines .

The islamic party and Goran in paticular will publish anything as long as it is anti government without any varification or consideration to the political , cultural consequences of their action and last year they went as far as accusing the government(thier own government ) for selling the Iraqi oil to Iran . many pro Goran journalists were taking pictures with bloody nose or face and accuse Asayish of beating them without any proof that the event even took place , but heyy there are plenty of people that would believe and that is the goal "propaganda " and nothing more .

I'm not saying that arrests are not happening , but I think the media is out of control and should be properly regulated and their financial back ground must be checked , because it simply make no sense for one political party to so many propaganda/media outlets being a radio station , tv station , newspapers , magazines , website ...etc and claim poverty and lack of support from the government .