19/2/2023
On Sunday, the director of the students boarding of the Technical University of Erbil prevented several journalists from covering a student demonstration and severely beat a reporter and broke his equipment.
The correspondent of the channel “Bouar Media” ,Nabz Rashadtold the Press FreedomAdvocay Association in Iraq that he andthe correspondents of the agencies “Sharpress, Kobas, Eista, welat, and NRT channel” and their correspondents “HazarAnwar, Timan Rawandzi, Ayoub Saleh, Muhammad Khalil Shawani, Jumani Mohammed” were about to cover a demonstration organized by students of the boarding units at the university, protesting against the deterioration of services and the lack of water and electricity, but he was surprised that the director of the department, who was near the demonstration, assaulted Nabz Rashad by beating, and preventing him from covering The demonstration, pointing out that the director insulted reporters and the cameramen, and broke the some of their equipmnt, demanding that they leave the demonstration site immediately, and stop filming.
The Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq condemns the attack on colleagues and them being prevented from performing their professional duties, which is considerd a flagrant constitutional violation.
The association expresses its concern about the low levels of freedom of journalistic work in Iraq, after repeated cases of prevention and beating of media cadres, which the association documents in its reports, on an almost daily basis.
The association also calls on the responsible authorities in the region to provide a suitable environment for journalistic work, and to comply with the constitution, the law, international charters and treaties.
It calls on international organizations to pay attention to the series of violations of freedom of journalistic work in Iraq in general and the Kurdistan region in particular, after the registration of prisoners of conscience, malicious lawsuits, and prosecutions of opinion and pen holders only for expressing an opinion that is inconsistent with the moods of the followers of the authority.
The association also indicates the seriousness of the deviation in the democratic system of Iraq, and the drift of the parties, that are supposed to be the protectors of the constitution, with the moods of the politicians in force, and their tools.
