Armed Attacks, Raids, 17 media bodies shut down and hostilities\noffending more than 88 Journalists<\/p>\n\n\n\n
October marked the worst month of press freedom in Iraq\nsince 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the October demonstrations, Iraq witnessed\nunprecedented violations of journalists in a range of Iraqi provinces, where\nthe association recorded through its observers in a group of provinces: (89)\ncases of violation against journalists, and as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Armed attacks, raids and closures of media headquarters and\noffices: 17 media bodies<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Threats of liquidation: 33 journalists<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arrests without arrest warrants: 8 journalists<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Live fire and tear gas canisters: 14 journalists<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beating and preventing from coverage: 28 journalists<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Armed attacks and abuses against media\nchannels and institutions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the beginning of the demonstrations, the association\nhas recorded 17 cases of violation of media channels and institutions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. On October 4th<\/sup>, 2019, the headquarters of Al-Ahwar\nChannel in Nasiriyah province was burned by a group of protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2- On October 5th<\/sup>, 2019, the headquarters of the Dijla channel in\nBaghdad was raided by an armed party, and set fire to parts of it, after\nbeating workers and confiscating their mobile phones. Dijla remained closed\nuntil it resumed broadcasting from Amman, Jordan, nearly two weeks after the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3- On the same day, minutes after the storming of the\nHeadquarters of Dijla, the same gunmen who were roaming in shaded 4 wheel drive\ncars with no plates, computers and the broadcast center, which led to the\nsuspension of the satellite signal completely, and then attacked the workers by\nBeating and cursing them before finally warning them not to resume function.\nThe satellite did not return to regular broadcast till reporting time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4- On the same day, the same armed force attacked a media\ncompany that includes the offices of (Alarabiya, Al-Arabiya Alhadath, Alghad, and\nTurkish TRT) satellite channels. Under the attack, an employee was seriously\ninjured (according to Al-Arabiya Alhadath) and then destroyed Alarabiya and Al-Arabiya\nAlhadath Equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5- Hours after these incidents, gunmen stormed the building\nof Al-Nahrin terrestrial channel, expelled its workers, took control of the\nentire building, and turned off the channel’s broadcast until October 21st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6- On October 6th<\/sup>, the headquarters of AlFurat\nChannel was attacked by a “suicide bomber” drone, which targeted one\nof the buildings, injuring one of its employees, and causing serious material\nand financial damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7-\nOn the same day, al-Rasheed satellite channel dropped its\nsignal by order of its Director, without further explanation, but the staff\nconfirmed that the owner of the channel was under anonymous political pressure.\nAl-Rasheed resumed broadcasting before the eruption of October 25th<\/sup> demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the\ndemonstrations broke up again on October 25th<\/sup>, 2019, another group\nof channels were burned by unknown assailants:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8- An\nunknown group burned down the headquarters of Alfurat Radio in Diwaniyah\nprovince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9- Followed\nby the burning of the office of AlEmel Radio in Diwaniyah province<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10- Unknown assailants\nalso burned down the office of Al-Amr radio in Maysan province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11- The\nheadquarters of Zahratul Furat radio was burned by unknown assailants in\nDiwaniyah province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12- The Director\nof DIjla channel came under considerable political pressure to drop the\nchannel’s signal, following his coverage of the 25th demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13-\nNasiriyah terrestrial channel stopped broadcasting demonstrations after local\ngovernment\u2019s pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14- On Oct.\n26th<\/sup>, and outside the context of the demonstrations in Baghdad and\nthe southern provinces, Kurdistan region forces stormed the building of (NRT Kurdish)\nchannel for political reasons, and it is reported that the satellite channel\ncovered the demonstrations in many cities of Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15. Media\nand Communications Commission suspended the broadcast of the Alarabiya and\nAlarabiya Alhadeth channels in Baghdad claiming their violating the rules and\nregulations of broadcasting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16. On the\nsame day, a group of civilians broke into Al-Diyar TV building in Baghdad and\nbroke some equipment, for unknown reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17. On Oct. 27th<\/sup>, national security agents stormed\nthe headquarters of Aljeil Aljadid Radio in Karbala under the pretext that they\ndid not have a broadcasting license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Victims of live rounds and Gas canisters<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq recorded 14 injuries\nas a result of covering October protests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Threats <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nassociation recorded 33 cases of death threats and physical liquidation by\npolitical, armed and security forces in Basra, Diwaniyah, Dhi Qar, Karbala,\nBaghdad and Babylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The press circles were concerned about the threats made by\nsecurity agencies to arrest several so-called instigators of violence,\nparticularly as Baghdad witnessed the arrest of a number of activists following\nthe events in early October, which led to changing the residencies of many\njournalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arrests with\nno warrants<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n – Oct. 2nd<\/sup>,\nfederal police forces arrested al-Rasheed TV staff and took them to their\nheadquarters at Abi Nawas Street, where they were beaten and the correspondent\nAhmed Al-Rikabi sustained a ruptured right knee and bruises on his thighs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Oct. 27th<\/sup>,\nsecurity forces arrested the staff of al-Rasheed satellite channel;\ncorrespondent Arshad Alhakim and cameraman, Ali Fadhil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – On the\nsame day, a masked armed group arrested al-Mada TV reporter Hussein Al-Amil,\nfrom his home in Dhi Qar province, along with several members of his family,\nduring a wave of arrests of a number of civilian activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – On the\nsame day, national security agents in Karbala province arrested a number of radio\nworkers from Aljil Aljadid radio, including colleagues Saad al-Ramahi and Rami\nal-Karbouli, without warrants who remain arrested till reporting time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Oct. 28th<\/sup>, according to orders of commander of\noperations in Karbala, riot police arrested (Haidar Hadi, iNews correspondent,\nTarek Al-Tafi, correspondent of al-Alrassid TV, Mohammed al-Assadi,\ncorrespondent of Al-itijah TV) for several hours and released them only after\nthe intervention of the journalists’ Syndicate in the province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong>Beating, banning and obstructing coverage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The association recorded (6) types of attacks of beating and\npreventing and obstructing the coverage of 17 journalists in various Iraqi\nprovinces during the October demonstrations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n – In the first and second days of the demonstrations, a\ngroup of journalists were beaten and prevented from coverage and their\nequipment was confiscated. SWAT forces in Diwaniyah beated a group of media\nprofessionals and prevented them from covering, namely (Zaid al-Fatlawi,\nHassanein al-Mayahi, Mohammed Hassan, Mohammed al-Bolani, Dhiaa Almuhja,\nMustafa al-Mayahi, Nabil al-Jubouri, Mayada Ibrahim).Riot police attacked AP\nreporter Haidar al-Jurani and prevented him from coverage in Basra province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – On the second day of the demonstrations (2\/10\/2019),\ncolleagues Ahmed Zaidi and Abbas Radhi, a reporter and photographer of Alfurat\nTV channel, were beaten and prevented from covering Altayaran Square demonstrations\nin Baghdad by security forces <\/p>\n\n\n\n – presenter of the program Raise Your Voice, Ayman al-Ameri was\nbeaten by security forces and prevented from coverage where his equipment was\nconfiscated and all recorded material deleted before returning his equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – When demonstrations resumed in a number of Iraqi cities on\nthe 25th<\/sup>, riot police beat Altaghyir correspondent Mohammed Qadir\nwhile covering demonstrations in Tahrir Square, after which he was taken to\nhospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Federal police beat fellow INews cameraman Bilal Ayman and\nFrance-Presse cameraman Salman Al-Yassiri while covering demonstrations in\nKarbala province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Oct.27th<\/sup>, cadres of Al-Iraqiya TV in Baghdad,\nconsisting of (correspondent Thamer al-Shammari and photographer Ihsan Ibrahim)\nwere beaten by demonstrators in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. IN Basra, the\ndemonstrators ousted the cadres of two channels: AlIraqiya (correspondent and cameraman)\nand Afaq (correspondent and cameraman).<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Oct. 28th<\/sup>, the cadres of Al-Iraqiya TV in\nBaghdad (correspondent and cameraman) and Diwaniyah (correspondent and cameraman)\nwere expelled, and the staff of Afaq TV (two correspondents and cameramen) were\nalso expelled in Dhi Qar and Diwaniyah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The association was\nnot able to talk to the correspondents and cameramen who were pushed out of the\ndemonstrations, but the administrations of both Aliraqiya and Afaq announced\nthat they could not send their cadres again to the demonstration slot as a\nresult of the anger and annoyance of the demonstrators from their speech,\ndemanding that the names of the victims remain anonymous.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time that the Press\nFreedom Advocacy Association in Iraq thanks all its coordinators and\nrepresentatives in the Iraqi provinces and the press family throughout Iraq for\ntheir contribution to this statistic, it values this solidarity and team spirit\namong Iraqi journalists that is witnessed in Iraq for the first time, according\nto the data available to the association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The association affirms that\nthis setback recorded by Iraq after 16 years of experience of democratic rule,\nis a bad indicator of dealing with the articles guaranteed by the Constitution,\nincluding freedom of journalistic work, as well as arrests without warrants,\nthreats, coercions and intrusions into different media bodies, witnessed by all\nincluding the international organizations functioning in Iraq, without moving a\nscratch in true support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The association condemns the\nlack of protection of the media from its different headquarters to its network\nof correspondents, and affirms that these flagrant violations of the freedom of\njournalism have not been witnessed before in Iraq, even in the days of\nadministrative chaos in the years 2003-2005, nor during the years of sectarian\nviolence 2006-2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The association also expressed\nsurprise at the attitude of international organizations in Iraq, particularly\nthe UN mission, which had little role in pressuring the Iraqi government to\nstop the attacks, which had been recorded for the past month of October, amid\nterrible silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The association’s demand, which\nit will not give up, is to uncover the perpetrators who broke into the media\nheadquarters in Baghdad, who were concealed by the government’s report, and who\nbroke into many television stations and set them on fire for several days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nalso demands that anyone who deliberately fired tear gas at cameras and live\nbroadcasts be held accountable not leaving behind those who have ordered the\narrest of journalists without judicial orders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Armed Attacks, Raids, 17 media bodies shut down and hostilities offending more than 88 Journalists October marked the worst month of press freedom in Iraq since 2003. During the October demonstrations, Iraq witnessed unprecedented violations of journalists in a range of Iraqi provinces, where the association recorded through its observers in a group of provinces: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1315,"featured_media":3465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"jnews_post_split":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-opinion-articles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/71145243_10158147112193455_7837179322120011776_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3472,"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470\/revisions\/3472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pfaa-iq.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}