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On May 10, Saman Barzinji, the health minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government, announced that the COVID-19 pandemic no longer posed a threat to the region, and that the area would gradually reopen, according to news reports.
New York, March 26, 2020 — Authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan should conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the torture and robbery of journalist Adnan Rashidi and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Beirut, September 10, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned Iraqi Kurdistan authorities’ detention and deportation of Spanish freelance journalist Ferran Barber and urged the authorities to allow local and foreign journalists to do their jobs freely.
On August 21, 2019, in Topzawa, Iraqi Kurdistan, Asayish security forces affiliated with the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) arrested Roj News journalist Bryar Muhamad Mustafa, according to a report by his employer and a statement by the Metro Center for Journalists’ Rights and Advocacy, a local press freedom group.
“Ever since I started working as a journalist nine years ago, I have been under constant pressure from my family, my tribe, and my community to give up journalism. Friends have been asked by security forces to sever ties with me,” said freelance journalist Guhdar Zebari, when he met with CPJ in the empty lobby…
On July 17, 2019, in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil, officers from the Kurdish Counter-Terrorism Forces assaulted Al-Jazeera reporter Ahmed al-Zawiti, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and news reports.
On July 9, 2019, in the city of Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish security forces detained and questioned freelance photojournalist Zmnako Ismael for more than an hour while he was covering the funeral of Diyar Gharib Mohammed, a senior leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party militant group, according to local news reports and Ismael, who…
On June 4, 2019, security forces affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party harassed and attempted to arrest Barzan Ali Hama, a reporter for local broadcaster Kurdistan 24, in the city of Koya, in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Hama, who spoke with CPJ, and news reports.
Mission journal: Journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan are under pressure from authorities in the autonomous northern Iraqi region, with news outlets shuttered and critical reporters arrested. With government formation talks underway, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado travels to Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Duhok to hear from local journalists on how the partisan…