Iraqi border guards briefly detain 3 Shar Press journalists
On January 30, 2023, Iraqi border guards in Halabja province, near the border with Iran, detained a three-person video crew from the independent Shar Press media agency for about three hours, according to a report by the agency and Shar Press correspondent Hawraz Ahmed, who spoke to CPJ by phone. The team, which consisted of…
Greek journalist Evangelos Areteos denied entry to Turkey
Istanbul, August 29, 2022–Turkish authorities should allow Greek journalist Evangelos Areteos to work freely, and should not let political considerations influence journalists’ admission into the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Thursday, August 25, authorities at the Sabiha Gökçen Airport in Istanbul detained Areteos, a reporter for the Greek newspaper Real and…
Rudaw reporter Barzan Ferman detained in northern Syria
Washington, D.C., August 3, 2022 – Authorities in northern Syria should immediately release journalist Barzan Ferman and reverse their suspension of the Rudaw Media Network’s license, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. At about noon on Tuesday, August 2, forces affiliated with the Democratic Union Party, the political party in power in the Autonomous Administration…
Anniversary of Kurdish journalist murder sends out alarming truth about silencing of dissent in Iraqi Kurdistan
Amsterdam, May 4 2022 — Kurdish authorities were likely directly involved in the 2010 kidnapping and murder of a young journalist, a newly published investigation by A Safer World for the Truth finds, and engaged after the fact in intimidation and harassment – indicative of a larger pattern of impunity and silencing of the free…
Journalists attacked throughout northeastern Syria, 2 remain in detention
New York, July 23, 2021 – All parties in northern Syria must do their utmost to ensure that members of the press can work safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Since July 16, unidentified attackers and Syrian Kurdish security forces have attacked and detained at least five members of the press throughout areas…
Kurdish Iraqi security forces arrest journalist Guhdar Zebari at his home in Akre
New York, October 27, 2020 — Iraqi Kurdish authorities should immediately release journalist Guhdar Zebari, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 22, Kurdish security forces raided the house of Zebari, a reporter and editor for the news website Wllat News, in the northern Kurdish city of Akre, arrested him and took him…
Iraqi security forces harass 3 journalists in Kirkuk; Kurdish Iraqi police detain 1 over defamation lawsuit in Erbil
On June 9, 2020, Iraqi security forces in the northeastern Iraqi city of Kirkuk prevented Azad Shakur, a reporter for the Kurdish Iraqi broadcaster Gali Kurdistan, and Diyar Mohammed, a reporter for the Kurdish Iraqi broadcaster NRT, from reaching their workplaces and threatened to break the camera of Hazhar Rasheed, a reporter for Shafaq News…
In Iraqi Kurdistan, journalists are victim of political tension
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…
CPJ Safety Advisory: Security in Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG)
At least 15 journalists were assaulted and seven detained while covering widespread protests across Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq between March 25 and March 27, according to CPJ research and local press freedom and human rights groups. The wave of detentions and assaults has sparked fear among local journalists and press freedom groups that Kurdish authorities will…