14/1/2019
A cameraman for Dijlah channel, Omar Thaer, was severely beaten on Monday by a security force while covering the renovation of the Tahreer Bridge in the city of Mosul.
The Coordinator of Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq said that a group of police officers severely beaten the photographer of Dijlah, colleague Omar Thaer al-Husseini, following the security force’s attempt to prevent the photographer from coverage.
For his part, the latter raised a complaint at the Nineva Provincial Police Directorate, and the Directorate of Police Affairs in the province opened an investigation and summoned the delinquent elements.
The Association considers the incident an explicit constitutional violation, it condemns the repeated attacks by the security authorities on journalists, and calls on the Prime Minister General Commander of the armed forces to intervene and put an end to these violations in contravention of the laws and the Iraqi Constitution.
The association also calls on the Directorate of Affairs to inform the Press family of the results of the investigation, to refer the aggressors to the competent judicial authorities, and warns the Directorate once it has not carried out its duties to hold the aggressors full accountability.
