The Fourth Authority Suffocated by the Other Three Courts Intensify Saddamist Laws

Comprehensive Report on the Situation of Journalists and Press Freedom in Iraq
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, a comprehensive report monitoring the conditions of journalists and press freedom in Iraq reveals a serious deterioration in general freedoms in Iraq, and a heightened concern due to the unprecedented rise in the number of court rulings, arrest warrants, summons, and in absentia judgments against journalists, based on laws inherited from the previous dictatorial era.

The violations indicate an aggressive, systematic approach used by the authorities, resorting to legal harassment to silence journalists and instructing security forces to chase journalists on the streets and prevent them from filming.

Governmental “independent” bodies and journalists’ unions also emerge as supporting tools for the methodology of intimidation and suppression of journalists, and are subjected to directives outside the context of their work, in addition to blocking news websites and press groups to please those in power.

Some journalists, as a result of expressing their opinions (which are constitutionally guaranteed), were punished by dismissal, transfer, marginalization, and exclusion by the heads of some media institutions.

This report documents (333) violations, distributed between detention, arrest, and injuries, as well as raids, storming, or armed attacks on journalists’ homes and media outlets, assault, obstruction or obstruction of work, and filing lawsuits. Journalists in Baghdad, Erbil, and Basra received the lion’s share of them.

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To view the report, click on the following link

The Fourth Authority Suffocated by the Other Three Courts Intensify Saddamist Laws