A human rights center records 49 violations against media professionals in Iraqi Kurdistan

A human rights center in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq revealed that 49 violations were recorded against 36 journalists and media organizations in the first four months of this year.

This came during a press conference held in Erbil by the Director of the Metro Center for Defending Journalists’ Rights, Diary Muhammad, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.

Muhammad said that the violations that journalists faced during the past four months of this year amounted to 49 violations against 36 journalists and media institutions in the Kurdistan region.

He explained that the violations included cases of threats and arrests, without revealing the identities of the journalists and media institutions that were subjected to these violations.

Last year, the region’s authorities arrested 7 journalists for organizing unauthorized demonstrations, and last February, 5 of them were sentenced to 6 years in prison for attempting to destabilize the security and stability of the region, while the court decided to release one journalist due to insufficient evidence.

The five defendants were convicted of being behind the angry protests in Sulay maniyah province at the end of last year, following delays in paying employees’ salaries, during which they stormed party headquarters and set them on fire.