4/2/2017
Editor in Chief of Assabah formal Newspaper, Ahmad Abdulsada, has been threatened by the Family of the Minister of Health, Dr. Adeela Hmoud on the background of adhering to valid procedures and regulations adopted in the media body.
Abdulsada told Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq that the Minister’s brother faked his signature to release a number of the institution’s vehicles for his personal benefit, he also added that the only one authorized to carry out such action is himself and in case of his absence the authority is held by his executive editor, and no other holds such authority.
Abdulsada added that he followed the valid procedures stipulated in the institution’s bylaw; Head of the Network, Ali Alshilah, accordingly transferred him to the printery. The incident caused in triggering a threat by the Head of AlHumoud Tribe and Abdulsada was contacted by phone to be informed that he is demanded to call his tribe for a tribal session between the two; a tradition that would set him in constant threat of being killed if he refrained from doing so.
Chief Editor of the inner pages of Assabah daily newspaper clarified that he would not be submissive to the pressure of those threats even if that costs him his life since it means that the language of power and blood would prevail and erase any chance for imposing law. In other words it’s a sign of continuous helplessness in holding any delinquent and corrupt employee accountable.
At the time that the Association declares its full support for Mr. Ahmad Abdulsada, it stresses upon the fact that this incident is considered a dire violation to the laws and regulations that control the function of press bodies in Iraq that eventually would cripple the very goal of establishing such bodies in the first place.
The Association calls on PM to hold his responsibilities concerning holding the Minister of Health responsible for being the lane that enables her relatives to fly over the law and accordingly threatening people with tribal interferences and uprooting one’s career.
The Association also demands that COR Committee for Culture and Media calls the Minister for investigation since allowing such incidents to passively pass by would increase corruption and sense of illegal impunity.
