KRG security Directorate arrested press correspondent Biryar Mohammed after responding to a call made by 5the directorate in Erbil on Wednesday.
The correspondent for the Association in KRG said that Mohammed who works for Rozhnews news agency that is linked with Kurdistan labor party, as a correspondent, he told his family that he was setting off to Tobzawa area as a response for a security call after that he was transferred to Khibat security department that is part of Erbil province then he was transferred to Erbil’s General Security Service where the last contact was made with his wife and by which she knew that he was arrested by the security forces.
According to Erbil security Director Tarek Nouri, who told the agency where Biryar Mohammed works: the colleague is treated as a Peshmerga and is being dealt with in accordance with military procedures, but his family told the agency that Biryar worked for the media dep. of a Peshmerga unit and left that job in 2016..
The arrest of Biryar Mohamed comes a month after the arrest of the same agency reporter in Pradost area of Bahdinan, and his fate remains unknown.
Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq considers this action a clear and explicit targeting of journalistic work and a flagrant violation of the constitution that guaranteed press and media freedom, especially since the former Kurdistan Regional Government is involved in the arrest, beating and kidnapping of dozens of fellow journalists, and has not been held accountable for its violations. The association calls on the Federal Government to intervene to save fellow journalists, and the international organizations concerned to state their position towards the continuous aggressive and abusing attitude that the Government in Kurdistan Region is adopting against journalists. Silence is deterring freedom of press in Iraq.
