12/8/2020
Security forces in Duhok raided the office of the NRT television channel and arrested all its employees shortly after the channel’s team was detained for covering demonstrations in Duhokon Wednesday to protest the deteriorating living and services situation.
The channels manager, Omeid Muhammed informed Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq that their correspondent Beryar Mahmoud and cameraman Abdulwahab Benjamen were detained by Asayesh forces during the covering of the protest, adding that Another force raided the channel’s office and detained their office Manager (Biwar Helmi Noureddine) and all colleagues working there without mentioning the reasons, namely, Montage editor Rywar Ali Saleh, the receptionist Ahmad Adnan Khalid, and service driver Sharif Mohammed Salim.
He said the authorities detained six colleagueswithout any warrants and were only releasedshortly before the text of this statement was written.
Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq calls on the regional authorities to stop harassing journalists, which is a flagrant violation of the Constitution and a clear breach of international treaties signed by the KRG authorities and abided to by them.
The association calls on the federal government to intervene to stop the series of abuses against journalists in the province by the authorities there, particularly since the arrests were carried out without any warrant.
