جمعية الدفاع عن حرية الصحافة في العراق Press freedom advocacy association in Iraq
Six satellite channels were raided during the demonstrations that were held in Suleimaniya on Friday.
representative for Freedom Press Advocacy Association in Iraq said that, Rudaw, Spedat, Rica, Geli Kurdistan and Kurdish TRT and Waar Satellite Channels were attacked with stones and hit by anonymous groups along with attacks of tear gas by riot police, adding that Hundreds of people demonstrated in front of “Shari Joan” hotel in Suleimaniya, where the five Kurdish parties held negotiations to resolve the presidency issue.
adding that people took advantage of the situation that jeopardized the place after protester’s attack on the hotel, media teams were beaten , a reporter and the photographer of TRT Kurdish channel were wounded, colleagues Mustafa Karim , Aram Bakhtiar were beaten severely by a few people who were among the protesters, as the photographer of Beli channel , Rezhin Kamal was bared head injuriesbecause of a stone attack that led him to hospital.
Reporter of Rica satellite channel ,Haoraz Ahmed was also subjected to suffocation as a result of a tear gas bomb and was taken to the hospital, while the colleague Yadgar Haji , the reporter of Spedat channel was beaten by a group of civilians, the colleague Haji said in his speech to the Association that he had been beaten, saying “a group of demonstrators have beaten me during live broadcast of the demonstrations and cut the transmission by smashing the cameras.”
For his part, the correspondent of Rudawchannel ,SamanBesharati said that his team was violently attacked by unknown people damaging their equipment as some SNG device, noting that some were calling to burn all equipment of Spedat channel.
The photographer of TRT Kurdish channel colleague , Aram Bakhtiar, told the representative of the association in Kurdistan that ” his colleague and the reporter at the Channel , Mustafa Karim was exposed to beatings and humiliation by some people,” noting that his colleague and himself were exposed to various injuries and were taken to the hospital.
Press Freedom Advocacy Association expressed deep concern about these attacks by unknown persons and holds KRG authorities the responsibility for the attacks against journalists while performing their duty.
The Association also calls on the Kurdish authorities to take appropriate measures to protect journalists from similar attacks in the future, especially since many of the cities of the region are witnessing a protests these days.
The Association calls on all colleagues to be careful during press coverage, and pay attention to those who blend among protesters and try to attack media teams in order to implement some Partisan agendas, and inform the representative of the Association in Kurdistan about any threats or malicious lawsuits that could be directed against them, to prevent them from covering the wave of protests in KRG.
