Three Media Groups Detained in Sulaimaniyah

27/5/2023

Security agents in Sulaymaniyah detained the teams of “Rudaw”, “Payam” and “NRT” channels while they were trying to cover a demonstration held by the people of the “Peramkron” area.

The coordinator of the Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq, Sulaymaniyah reported that the security detained the media teams for more than half an hour, inside the region’s police station, after they taking away their equipment, and erased all the recorded materials.

Security forces in Sulaymaniyah detained Rudaw TV reporter and cameraman Arkan Ali and Alan Othman, Payam TV reporter and cameraman Ramyar Osman and Jihad Abdulrahman, and NRT reporter and cameraman Goran Lokman and Kuzin Kamiran.

the Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq expresses its concern about the repeated cases of heightening the grip on media workers inside the region, where security services use different types of violence against them; detaining or arresting them, and deliberately breaking their equipment, in order to prevent them from performing their assigned duties. The association considers such incidents a flagrant violation of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of journalistic and media work in the country.

The association indicates the repetition of the series of detention of journalists by the security forces, and the erasure of everything documented by them to prevent informing the public, which is a deliberate suppression of the freedom of journalistic work, and a clear constitutional violation.

The Association stresses the need to respect what is stipulated in the constitution, to stop attacking journalists, and allow them to undertake their assignments. It also calls on UN and international organizations to focus their work on Iraq, given the attempts of politicians to overrule the constitution and international treaties and covenants signed by Iraq.