26/8/2023
Members of the Security of the “Khormal” hospital in the Halabja district, seized the camera of Speeda cameraman, Shakhwan Saeed on Saturday morning.
The channel confirmed to the Press Freedom Advocacy Association that the “Speeda” cameraman, was on a special mission to cover the detailsof a traffic accident that occurred in the Khormal area in Halabja. The incident resulted in severe injuries, and the victims were transferred to Khormal Hospital for treatment. During the coverage, members of the hospital security, attacked the correspondent with a torrent of insults, and confiscated his cameras, and erased the material. Colleagues at the channel reported that the cameraman returned his camera, after he was asked to leave, and not to return to the area to film.
The Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq condemns this behavior that denied the media person from performing his duties and considers it a clear violation of the freedom of journalistic and media work, which is constitutionally guaranteed.
The association records on an almost daily basis the recurrence of cases of security services preventing media workers from performing their duties, and using violence and harassment against them.
The association calls on the security services in Kurdistan to end preventing journalists, deliberately obstructing their duty, and to allow them to report the course of the ongoing events from inside the region.
