26/7/2020
UTV announced the closure of its office in Baghdad after receiving threats from an unknown armed entity.
The staff at the channel’s headquarters told Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq that their office on Abu Nuwas Street had been closed after receiving threats from an unknown group offour-wheel-drive vehicles and armed elements, immediately after ending a broadcast of a (Shahadat Khassa: Private Witnesses) program that dealt with information that was deemed offensive to an Islamic figure without naming him.
Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq rejects these threats by armed groups and considers this mouth muzzling policy a clear violation of the freedom of journalistic and media work in the country.
The Association holds the Minister of Interior and the Prime Minister, as the highest security authority in the country, fully responsible for providing protection to journalists and media organizations, enforcing the rule of law, demanding an end to these armed groups, resorting to the courts in resolving such cases, and invoking the Constitution.
