12/14/2020
Security forces in Kirkuk governorate arrested a number of reporters while performing their duties in a village in the governorate, and took them to an unknown destination.
The coordinator of the Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Kirkuk reported the arrest of the correspondent of “Turkish Anadolu Agency” Ogene Omran, the correspondent of the “Ruz News” Agency Soran Mohammed, the correspondent of “Xian Media” Soran Abdul Karim, the correspondent of the “Eista News” Helmet Hassan, and the reporter of “The Standard ” website Akam Waziri, while they were in the village of Balkana, of the “Sarkran” subdistrict in Al-Debs district, which includes a number of disputed territories among minorities in Kirkuk, indicating that the forces arrested them on charges of not obtaining the routine official approvals from the governorate operations command and the army to cover events in the village. He indicated that they are still being held by the security forces until the moment of writing this statement.
While the Press Freedom advocacy Association condemns the arrest of fellow journalists, it considers the security forces’ request to journalists for permits is a jump over the decisions issued by the Iraqi government that has granted authorization letters to journalists since 2015, and considers it a flagrant violation of the freedom of journalistic and media work guaranteed by the constitution.
The association calls on the security leaders in Kirkuk to instruct the forces working under their command to stop arresting and detaining journalists without justification, and to reveal as soon as possible their place of detention, and to release them immediately.
