The journalists were identified as Bashdar Bazyani, Dana Salih, Sardasht HamaSalih, and Nabaz Shekhani.

Security forces closed the outlet’s office in Sulaymaniyah on March 1, saying it lacked a license, confiscated several computers, and ordered staff not to return to work, according to two sources who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.

Three sources told CPJ that authorities released three of the journalists on bail on Sunday, March 2. Bazyani remained in custody as of Monday. 

“Authorities’ arrest of four journalists and the forced closure of Media21’s office is a direct attack on press freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “Authorities must immediately release journalist Bashdar Bazyani, drop charges against all four journalists, and allow the outlet to resume operations.” 

Two sources told CPJ that the arrests and shutdown are linked to a Media21 interview with the sister of a Kurdistan Regional Government official regarding a family dispute. The official filed a lawsuit after Bazyani messaged him about the interview ahead of publication.

Karwan Anwar, head of the Sulaymaniyah branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, told CPJ that the journalists were charged with defamation under Article 433 of the penal code, which provides for an unspecified prison term and/or a fine. “Harsher penalties” can be imposed on media outlets. 

Media21, which launched on February 21, 2025, condemned the “unjust and illegal” arrests. “These individuals are key members of our investigative team and were arrested while carrying out their journalistic duties,” the statement said.

CPJ’s messages to the Kurdistan Regional Government official did not receive a reply. CPJ’s calls to Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency, were unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“The aggressive treatment meted out to journalists by Erbil security forces while covering a peaceful protest is deeply concerning,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities not to target journalists during protests, which has been a recurring issue.”

Kurdistan has been in a financial crisis since the federal government began cutting funding to the region after it started exporting oil independently in 2014. In 2024, the Federal Supreme Court ordered Baghdad to pay Kurdistan’s civil servants directly but ongoing disagreements between the two governments mean their salaries continue to be delayed and unpaid.

Since the end of Kurdistan’s civil war in 1998, the semi-autonomous region has been divided between the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah. While the KDP has discouraged the teachers’ protests, the PUK has sometimes supported them, including through affiliated media outlets.

At the February 9 protest, a crowd of teachers from Sulaymaniyah tried to reach Erbil, the capital, and were stopped at Degala checkpoint, where CPJ recorded the following attacks:

• Pro-opposition New Generation Movement NRT TV camera operator Ali Abdulhadi and reporter Shiraz Abdullah were stopped from filming by about seven armed security officers, known in Kurdish as Asayish, according to a video posted by the outlet.

“One of them chambered a round [into his gun]. I tried to leave but one of them attempted to strike me with the butt of a rifle, hitting only my finger. Another grabbed my camera and took it,” Abdulhadi told CPJ.

• Diplomatic’s reporter Zhilya Ali collapsed from teargas, a video posted by the privately owned digital outlet showed.

“There are still wounds on my face from when I fell,” she told CPJ, adding that she was taken to hospital and given oxygen.

• An ambulance took pro-PUK digital outlet Zhyan Media’s reporter Mardin Mohammed and camera operator Mohammed Mariwan to a hospital in Koya after they were teargassed.

“I couldn’t see anything and was struggling to breathe. My cameraman and I lost consciousness for three hours,” Mariwan told CPJ.

• Pro-PUK satellite channel Kurdsat News reporters Gaylan Sabir and Amir Mohammed and camera operators Sirwan Sadiq and Hemn Mohammed were teargassed and their equipment was confiscated, the outlet said.

• Privately owned Westga News said five staff — reporters Omer Ahmed, Shahin Fuad, and Amir Hassan, and camera operators Zanyar Mariwan and Ahmed Shakhawan — were attacked and teargassed. Ahmed told CPJ that a security officer grabbed a camera while they were broadcasting, while Fuad said another camera, microphone, and a livestreaming encoder were also taken and not returned.

• Pro-PUK Slemani News Network reporter Kochar Hamza was carried to safety by protesters after she collapsed due to tear gas, a video by the digital outlet showed. She told CPJ that she and her camera operator Sivar Baban were treated at hospitals twice.

“My face is still swollen, and I feel dizzy,” she told CPJ.

• A team from Payam TV, a pro-opposition Kurdistan Justice Group satellite channel, required treatment for teargas exposure.

“We were placed on oxygen and prescribed medication,” reporter Ramyar Osman told CPJ, adding that camera operator Sayed Yasser was hit in the knee by a rubber bullet.

• Madah Jamal, a reporter with the pro-opposition Kurdistan Islamic Union Speda TV satellite channel, told CPJ that he was also teargassed.

• Pro-PUK digital outlet Xendan’s reporter Shahen Wahab told CPJ that she and camera operator Garmian Omar suffered asthma attacks due to the teargas.

• Pro-PUK satellite channel Gali Kurdistan’s reporter Karwan Nazim told CPJ that he had to stop reporting because he couldn’t breathe and asked his office to send additional staff.

“I had an allergic reaction and my face turned red. I had to go to the hospital,” he said.

Raided and arrested

Abdulwahab Ahmed, head of the Erbil office of the pro-opposition Gorran Movement KNN TV, told CPJ that two unplated vehicles carrying Asayish officers followed KNN TV’s vehicle to the office at around 1:30 p.m., after reporters Pasha Sangar and Mohammed KakaAhmed and camera operator Halmat Ismail made a live broadcast showing the deployment of additional security forces by the United Nations compound, which was the protesters’ intended destination.

“They identified themselves as Asayish forces, forcibly took our mobile phones, and accused us of recording videos. They checked our social media accounts,” Sangar told CPJ.

KakaAhmed told CPJ, “They found a video I had taken near the U.N. compound on my phone, deleted it, and then returned our devices.”

In another incident that evening, Asayish forces arrested pro-PUK digital outlet Politic Press’s reporter Taman Rawandzi and camera operator Nabi Malik Faisal while they were live broadcasting about the protest and took them to Zerin station for several hours of questioning.

“They asked us to unlock our phones but we refused. Then they took our phones and connected them to a computer,” Rawandzi told CPJ, adding that his phone was now operating slowly and he intended to replace it.

“They told us not to cover such protests,” he said.

CPJ phoned Erbil’s Asayish spokesperson Ardalan Fatih but he declined to comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Baroshky’s lawyer, Revving Hruri, told CPJ via messaging app that the charges stem from a January 23, 2024 Facebook post in which Baroshky reported that political prisoner Mala Nazir had been kidnapped from the prison one day before his scheduled release.

In February, after Baroshky’s reporting was circulated widely in the local media, Zirka prison authorities sued the journalist for allegedly violating of Article 2 of the Misuse of Communication Devices law.

“We are deeply troubled by the sentencing of journalist Omed Baroshky over a Facebook post,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Iraqi Kurdish authorities must ensure that journalists are not criminalized for their reporting. We urge authorities to free Baroshky and allow him to continue his work without fear of retaliation.”

Hruri told CPJ that they presented the court with “multiple pieces of evidence proving that he is a journalist and should be tried under the press law, which does not allow imprisonment, but the court refused.”

Hruri said that while the court confirmed during the trial that Nazir had been transferred from the prison, “they alleged that Omed defamed the prison.”

CPJ contacted Aram Atrushi, the director of Zirka prison, for comment, but he declined to discuss the case.

Baroshky previously spent 18 months in jail from 2020 to 2022 under the same law over social media posts that criticized authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan. After his outlet Rast Media was raided and shut down in April 2023, he turned to Facebook as his main reporting platform.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Turkish authorities once more raided the homes of multiple journalists in the middle of the night, in order to portray them as dangerous criminals, and detained them without offering any justification. CPJ has monitored similar secretive operations in the past decade, and not one journalist has been proven to be involved with actual terrorism,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should immediately release the journalists in custody and stop this systematic harassment of the media.”

In a statement Tuesday, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said police had conducted simultaneous operations in 30 cities and detained a total of 261 people who suspected of having ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or alleged offshoot organizations. At least 12 journalists are reported to be held in custody:

• Erdoğan Alayumat, former reporter for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency in Istanbul
• Suzan Demir, Istanbul-based freelance reporter
• Tuğçe Yılmaz, Istanbul-based reporter for the independent news website Bianet
• Emrah Kelekçier, Diyarbakır-based freelance photographer
• Ahmet Sümbül, Diyarbakır-based freelance reporter
• Roza Metina, chairperson of the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Association in Diyarbakır
• Bilal Seçkin, Istanbul-based freelance photographer
• Bilge Aksu, Istanbul-based freelance reporter
• Mehmet Uçar, Batman-based freelance reporter
• Doğan Güzel, Diyarbakır-based political cartoonist
• Abdurrahman Aydın, Antalya-based columnist for the independent news website Gazete Duvar
• Havin Derya, Antalya-based freelance reporter

The reasons for the detentions are unknown, as there is a court order of secrecy on the investigation, preventing the detainees and their lawyers from being informed of the investigation’s details and possible charges, a common practice in such crackdowns.

CPJ emailed Turkey’s Interior Ministry for comment but received no reply.

Separately, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), threatened the pro-opposition outlet Halk TV and its commentators for criticizing his party with a vow that the MHP will make them suffer.

“We are taking note, one by one, of the ignorant and arrogant commentators, especially Halk TV,” Bahçeli said Tuesday at a MHP meeting in Ankara. In October, he had told the outlet to “watch your step.”

Editor’s note: The alert was updated to correct the name of Ahmet Sümbül.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“We are appalled by the brutal attack on journalist Wrya Abdulkhaliq, which left him with severe injuries to his abdomen and head,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “The Kurdistan Regional Government and its Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs must deliver justice for this vicious assault.”

The attack took place on November 4, hours after Abdulkhaliq, a reporter for the online outlet Bwar Media, published a report on allegations that an official had blocked the implementation of a local electricity and water project, according to multiple news outlets and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ. The report said the unnamed official was part of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs, which is the defense ministry in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan.

Abdulkhaliq told CPJ and a news conference that he was in his orchard when the official’s nephew and bodyguard approached, and the bodyguard aimed a gun at him.

“I quickly grabbed his hand and pushed him back to prevent him from shooting. The nephew tried to shoot but misfired,” Abdulkhaliq told CPJ. “The nephew stabbed me deeply in the abdomen with a combat knife. Then the bodyguard prepared to shoot again but he [the nephew] stopped him, saying, ‘Let’s not shoot him; he’s already wounded and will die.’”

Bwar Media’s editor-in-chief Ibrahim Ali told CPJ that the assailants also punctured Abdulkhaliq’s tires. He said doctors told him that the journalist was stable after receiving 21 stitches in the hospital.

“Two assailants along with a military official have been arrested. We are committed to ensuring that justice is served,” Ramak Ramazan, mayor of Chamchamal District where the incident took place, told CPJ via phone, without providing further details.

CPJ’s calls to request comment from Deputy Peshmerga Minister Sarbast Lazgin were not answered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic August 23 drone strike that killed two journalists and injured a third in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Turkish authorities should swiftly investigate this attack and determine if the reporting team was targeted for their work.”

The attack killed Gulistan Tara, a 40-year-old Turkish journalist, and Hero Bahadin, a 27-year-old Iraqi video editor. All three journalists worked for Chatr Multimedia Production Company, which operates Sterk TV and Aryen TV, news channels funded by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.) Turkey, the U.S., and the European Union have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization, and Iraq’s National Security Council banned the group earlier this year.

Turkey has escalated its military operations in the Kurdistan Region, targeting the PKK, which has been engaged in a decades-long conflict with Turkey. On July 8, a Turkish strike in Sinjar, northern Iraq, led to the death of a Çira TV reporter.

Rebin Bakir, an Iraqi video editor and social media officer injured in the August 23 attack, is in stable condition after treatment at Shar Hospital in Sulaymaniyah for broken legs and hands, according to Hawzhin Shwan, a Sterk TV reporter and anchor, who spoke to CPJ.

The three were on a reporting mission in an unmarked car along the Sulaymaniyah-Halabja road near the village of Goptapa when they were hit, Kamal Hamaraza, head of Chatr Multimedia Production Company, told CPJ, adding that they were journalists “with no direct or indirect connection to politics or military activities.”

“We have faced ongoing threats from Turkish attacks due to our consistent coverage of their operations and violations in the Kurdistan region,” Hamaraza said.

Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency, told CPJ that the agency “will publish publicly if they issue anything.” 

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“CPJ is deeply concerned by the attacks on the Zoom News TV crew in Sulaymaniyah and the Alsumaria TV crew in Baghdad,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “We call on Iraqi authorities to thoroughly investigate these incidents and ensure their security forces are properly trained to interact with journalists.”

On August 18, in Halabja, Sulaymaniyah province, Iraqi Kurdistan Asayish security forces attacked Zoom News TV reporter Avin Atta and cameraman Zhyar Kamli while they were reporting on a demonstration against the killing of a porter, known as a kolbar, by Iraqi border forces in the Hawraman area.

Atta told CPJ that an Asayish official twisted her arm behind her back, dislocating her shoulder and wrist, after she refused to hand over their camera and microphone. The security forces released Atta and Kamli after reviewing their footage for more than an hour. 

CPJ did not receive a response to its request for comment sent via messaging app to Salam Abdulkhaliq, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region Security Agency.

Zoom News TV supports the newly formed People’s Front, a political party participating in Kurdistan’s October 20 parliamentary elections.  

Separately, Iraqi SWAT forces assaulted Alsumaria TV reporter Amir Al-Khafaji and cameraman Omar Abbas while they were covering an August 19 Baghdad protest by medical school graduates demanding jobs.

Al-Khafaji told CPJ by phone that four SWAT officers beat him and confiscated their equipment and phones after he tried to stop them from attacking Abbas.

After taking the journalists to a police station in Baghdad’s Al-Rusafa district, the officers accused them of assaulting security forces and refused to release them until they signed a pledge not to attack security forces again. “We were shocked and denied the allegations,” said Al-Khafaji.

CPJ received no response to its call for comment from Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Miqdad Miri.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“CPJ is alarmed by the sentencing of Syrian journalist Sleman Ahmed, who has been detained for nine months,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities to release him without further delay and stop persecuting journalists for their work.”

Authorities charged Ahmed with espionage on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to Ramazan Tartisi, one of Ahmed’s lawyers, who spoke to CPJ. Tartisi and Luqman Ahmed, another member of the legal team who has no relation to the journalist, told CPJ that the journalist denied the charges and plans to appeal. 

The separatist PKK is designated a terrorist organization by several countries and institutions, including the U.S., Turkey, and the European Union. Iraq officially banned the group last week. 

Ahmed is the Arabic editor for the local news website RojNews, based in Sulaymaniyah, a city in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. RojNews is pro-PKK and regularly reports on the organization’s activities. 

The charges were “merely a means to retaliate against the journalist,” Luqman Ahmed told CPJ, saying that the court had no evidence for the conviction and the legal process was “very unfair,” adding that the lawyers were only allowed to attend the trial after pressure from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and foreign consulates.

Iraqi Kurdish authorities arrested Ahmed on October 25, 2023, when he re-entered Kurdistan after a family visit in Syria. The Security Directorate (Asayish), responsible for border security in Duhok Governorate, accused him of conducting “secret and illegal” work for the PKK.

CPJ’s call to Duhok Asayish Director Zeravan Baroshky for comment did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Iraqi Kurdish authorities have made a habit out of detaining and harassing journalists,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s Interim MENA Program Coordinator, in Washington D.C. “We are deeply concerned over the detention of prominent photojournalist Murat Yazar in the region for eight days and call on the authorities to immediately stop harassing members of the press and let them do their jobs freely.”

Iraqi Kurdish security forces, known as Asayish, have detained, raided, and harassed dozens of journalists in the last three years.

Yazar, a Pulitzer Center grantee, had gone missing in the city of Zakho, in the Duhok province of Iraqi Kurdistan, on July 13. Iraqi Kurdish Asayish forces detained and interrogated him for what his family said was his unintentional entry into an area under restrictiondue to Turkish military operations against the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. Yazar entered the area while working on a visual storytelling project about the Tigris River, according to a statement by the family, which CPJ reviewed. He was released without any charges, the statement said.

The officers confiscated Yazar’s passport, phone, and camera bag, according to the statement, and did not allow him to call his family or the Turkish consulate in Erbil.

After his release from Duhok Asayish prison, he crossed the border into Turkey around 1 a.m. on Monday, according to his brother, Baran, and two of his friends, Nil Delahaye, a human rights activist, and Paul Salopek, the founding executive director of the nonprofit Out of Eden Walk.

On Sunday, CPJ called Ahmed Ramazan, head of the Zakho police, and Ali Osman, an investigator at the Zakho Asayish office, who both stated that they had no information about the journalist.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The two Çira TV reporters—Mydia Hussen and Murad Mirza—were with their driver Khalaf Khdir returning from covering the tenth anniversary of an ISIS attack on the southern village Tal al-Qasab, according to Argash Shingali, a board member of Germany-based satellite broadcaster Çira TV. Shingali said “the car lacked any media markings.” 

The strike hit the journalists’ car in Sinjar (Shingal) District in northern Iraq on Monday, July 8, according to Shingali and Mehvan Hinji, head of Êzidxan Asayish forces, which is affiliated with the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS), a Yazidi militia with ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Turkey, the U.S., and the European Union have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization, and Iraq’s National Security Council banned the group earlier this year.

A Monday statement by Cira TV and a report by pro-PKK media outlet Rojnews said the strike was carried out by Turkish forces, a claim repeated by Kurdistan Region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in a Monday press release. Shingali told CPJ that the outlets confirmed it was a Turkish strike after speaking to Êzidxan Asayish forces.

Hinji told CPJ via messaging apps that they were still investigating whether the strike originated from Turkish forces.

Both reporters are currently being treated for head injuries at Sinjar Hospital in Sinjar city, Shingali said. The driver was also injured, he said.

“Iraqi and Turkish authorities must immediately and thoroughly investigate the car strike that injured two Çira TV reporters and their driver to determine its cause,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Local authorities must ensure journalists’ safety in northern Iraq as they report on crucial events.”

Sinjar is part of a disputed territory in northern Iraq and has been occupied by a succession of Iraqi and non-Iraqi sub-state actors. Turkey often conducts strikes in Sinjar, targeting YBS fighters.  

CPJ’s repeated calls to Mohammed Al-Zahabi, the director of Iraqi national security forces in Shingal city, were unanswered.

In September 2019, local authorities banned Çira TV from operating in Duhok province.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“We are pleased with the acquittal of journalist Sezgin Kartal, but let us not forget that the case against him was built on next to no evidence and should not have existed in the first place, let alone cost the journalist five months of his life in jail,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should not appeal the acquittal and ensure that members of the media are not prosecuted or so easily imprisoned without concrete evidence of wrongdoing.”

Authorities arrested Kartal in January 2023, and raided his home on the basis of his alleged resemblance to a man in a 2014 photograph of members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey recognizes as a terrorist organization. He spent more than five months behind bars before being released pending trial.

Kartal is a freelance journalist who covers Alevi issues, human rights, corruption, and labor issues and hosts a news show for the independent outlet Özgün TV.

CPJ attended Tuesday’s trial at the 22nd Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes. Kartal, who wasn’t present, was represented by his lawyers, who emphasized the lack of evidence against their client in closing arguments.

The indictment said the journalist met with alleged terrorists in Syria on September 24, 2014, pointing to a three-hour window in Kartal’s phone records, during which his cellphone did not receive any signal from Turkish towers, according to CPJ’s review of the document.

Kartal’s lawyer, Oya Meriç Eyüpoğlu, said the journalist was in the Suruç district in Şanlıurfa Province at Turkey’s southeastern border with Syria on that date, covering the ongoing refugee crisis. However, Eyüpoğlu said there is no evidence or chance that Kartal could have illegally crossed to Syria, had his photograph taken with a group of armed men, and returned to Turkey within three hours without being noticed by Turkish border guards.

Eyüpoğlu cited a forensic report that determined the photograph was taken during the daytime at 1:13 p.m., while the three-hour window that Kartal’s phone was off was from 8-11 p.m. that night.

Berfin Karaşah, Kartal’s other lawyer, argued that even if her client was the man in the picture, that would provide grounds for charges regarding illegal arms and violating border security, not terrorist organization membership.

CPJ emailed the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Ahmed — an Arabic editor for the local news website RojNews — is due to stand trial before Duhok Criminal Court in northern Iraqi Kurdistan on June 30, RojNews editor-in-chief Botan Garmiyani and Ahmed’s lawyers Nariman Ahmed and Reving Hruri told CPJ.

The news follows the filing in April of an Urgent Action to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances by CPJ and the MENA Rights Group to clarify Ahmed’s fate and whereabouts.

Ahmed was arrested on October 25 while entering Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region from Syria, where he had been visiting his family. The Security Directorate (Asayish), which is responsible for border security in Duhok Governorate, accused Ahmed of carrying out “secret and illegal” work for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The separatist PKK is designated a terrorist organization by countries and institutions, including the U.S., Turkey, and the European Union. Iraq’s National Security Council banned the group from operating in the country earlier this year. Ahmed’s outlet, RojNews, is pro-PKK and regularly reports on its activities.

Ara Khder, a spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Office of the Coordinator for International Advocacy, told CPJ in an email on May 26 that Ahmed had been arrested under the order of the Duhok Investigation Judge under Article 1 of Law No. 21 of 2003 and charged with espionage. Ahmed was being held in the Duhok Security Directorate’s prison.

“Accusing Sleman Ahmed of espionage and holding him for months before giving him access to his lawyers is yet another setback to press freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said CPJ Program Coordinator, Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Iraqi Kurdish authorities should release Ahmed immediately and drop all charges against him.”

‘We had no idea where he was’

The journalist’s lawyers told CPJ that Ahmed had no legal representation until May 22, when they were able to visit him in prison and receive official recognition as his legal team.

“For six months, we had no idea where he was, just so we could get his approval to be his attorneys,” said Hruri.

“For the first time since his arrest, he was also able to have a brief phone call with his family,” the journalist’s other lawyer, Nariman Ahmed, told CPJ.

The journalist could face life imprisonment if convicted under Article 1 of acts intended to undermine the stability, sovereignty, and security of the Kurdistan Region’s institutions.

Four other Kurdish journalists have been jailed for three to six years under the same article on charges of endangering the national security of the Kurdistan Region.

While Khder said in her May 26 email that Ahmed had access to his family, Ahmed’s lawyers and his brother, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed, told CPJ that the family had not been allowed to visit him.

“They only allowed him a two-minute phone call to confirm he is alive, no more, no less,” the journalist’s brother told CPJ in June via messaging app. “They don’t allow us to visit him in prison.”

Garmiyani told CPJ that RojNews rejected the charges against Ahmed. “This is merely a plot to imprison him. We demand his immediate release,” he said.

CPJ called Duhok Asayish Director Zeravan Baroshky for comment but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Ahmed, who works with the PKK affiliated Iraqi Kurdish news outlet, RojNews, was arrested while entering the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, from Syria, after visiting his family. Since then, his whereabouts and the charges brought against him, if any, have not been disclosed by the authorities. The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and its allies, including the Iraqi Kurdish government.

Ahmed is one of 3 journalists currently imprisoned in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to CPJ data.

More information about the submission is included here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On October 25, Ahmed—an Arabic editor for the local news website RojNews—was arrested by Iraqi Kurdish authorities at the northern Faysh Khabur border and taken to an unknown location, according to news reports, the journalist’s brother Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed, and RojNews editor-in-chief Botan Garmiyani, who both spoke to CPJ.

The journalist’s brother and Garmiyani said that Ahmed was returning from a visit to his family in Syria when his family lost contact with him at Faysh Khabur, which is part of the Duhok Governorate.

“Iraqi Kurdish authorities should immediately disclose the location of Syrian journalist Sleman Mohammed Ahmed, drop charges against him, and release him unconditionally,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour, in Washington, D.C. “It is unacceptable that journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan regularly have to contend with all sorts of harassment, from illegal detentions to physical attacks. Iraqi Kurdish authorities should allow journalists to work freely and without fear of reprisal.”

The Security Directorate (Asayish), which is responsible for border security in Duhok Governorate, said in a statement on its Facebook page that Ahmed’s arrest had nothing to do with his journalism but was because of his “secret and illegal” work for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The PKK is a militant group and political party that is legal in Iraqi Kurdistan but is classified as a terrorist group by the United States, European Union, and Turkey.

Ahmed’s outlet, RojNews, is pro-PKK and regularly reports on its activities.

Asayish said that Ahmed had confessed to his actions during the investigation and would be brought to court and dealt with according to the law.

The journalist’s brother told CPJ that Ahmed was “never a fighter but only a journalist.”

Garmiyani also rejected the allegations against Ahmed, who he said had been working for RojNews since 2018, possessed all the necessary legal documents, and had never been arrested before.

“We do not know why he was arrested,” Garmiyani told CPJ. “We have contacted the security forces, but neither we nor his family have received any responses.”

CPJ has documented numerous incidents of journalists being attacked, arrested, or detained in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Ali Auni, head of the Duhok bureau of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which controls Duhok Governorate, declined to comment.

CPJ’s phone calls to Zerevan Barushki, director of Asayish, did not receive a response.

Ashti Majeed, Asayish’s spokesperson in Duhok and Erbil, referred CPJ to its Facebook statement.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Thursday, September 13, the 2nd Tatvan Court of Penal Peace granted bail to Yücel Baysali and Engin Kaplan, two bodyguards of the mayor of the eastern city of Tatvan who were arrested on charges of attacking local journalist Sinan Aygül in June. 

On the same day, the 5th Diyarbakır Court of Serious Crimes and the 2nd Bitlis Court of Serious Crimes declined to release Abdurrahman Gök and Mehmet Şah Oruç, respectively. Both are reporters for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency who have been held in pretrial detention since April.

Gök and Oruç are both charged with membership in a terrorist organization and propaganda in connection with their reporting. If convicted, they face up to 15 years in prison for membership in a terrorist organization and up to 7.5 years for propaganda, the journalists’ lawyer, Resul Temur, told CPJ.

“Thursday was a sad day for journalism in Turkey. Imprisoned for their work, journalists Abdurrahman Gök and Mehmet Şah Oruç will lose more months of their lives behind bars while those accused of brutally assaulting journalist Sinan Aygül enjoy their freedom while awaiting trial,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities are punishing journalists for doing their jobs and protecting those who assault them. Authorities must release Gök and Oruç and take action to ensure Aygül’s safety.”

During their Thursday hearing, Baysali and Kaplan claimed that Aygül, chief editor of the privately owned website Bitlis News and chair of the Bitlis Journalists Society, insulted them. The two accused demanded their release, claiming they were wrongfully detained and that it was the journalist who should be on trial, not them.

Their lawyers denied the charges of “intentional injury” despite video evidence of Baysali beating Aygül. The video also showed Kaplan, a police officer, touching his gun to intimidate bystanders who tried to intervene.

In a video posted to X, previously known as Twitter, Aygül said he does not believe he has “security of life” and told CPJ after the hearing that he wouldn’t be surprised if he were arrested as a victim of the attack. The next court hearing is December 14.

Gök and Oruç are charged with terrorism due to alleged ties to the outlawed organization, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, according to the indictments reviewed by CPJ. The evidence for these claims includes examples of their professional work and statements from witnesses who admitted to ties with the PKK, which Turkey deems a terrorist organization. 

Gök and his lawyers argued in court that the indictment lacked solid evidence and the charges were retaliation for his 2017 award-winning report about police officers who shot and killed a young man. 

Oruç and Temur told the Bitlis court that the case against the journalist was based on his journalistic works and he had no ties to terrorism. Oruç, who was not brought to court and attended the hearing by teleconference, said, “Kurdish journalism is being criminalized.”

Turkey was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with 40 behind bars at the time of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census. Of those, more than half were Kurdish journalists.

The courts set Oruç’s next hearing for October 31 and Gök’s next hearing for December 5. CPJ’s emails to the prosecutor’s offices in Diyarbakır, Bitlis, and the Municipality of Tatvan did not receive a reply. 

In 2022, Gök was sentenced to 18 months for propaganda. That appeal has yet to be heard.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Thursday, August 24, Asayish intelligence agents arrested Kashani, a host on the broadcaster Xabir TV and head of the local office of Speda satellite TV, at his home in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Zakho, according to a report by Speda as well as his brother and two of his colleagues, who spoke to CPJ.

Authorities did not present a warrant for Kashani’s arrest and raided his home hours after his detention. He remained in Asayish custody as of Friday.

The day before his arrest, during a segment on his Gulsen news program, Kashani criticized the Kurdistan Regional Government’s alleged corruption and mismanagement of public salaries, as well as the poor living conditions of local security forces.

“Iraqi Kurdish authorities must immediately release journalist Islam Kashani and ensure that members of the press are not arrested in retaliation for their work,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities must end their pattern of detaining and intimidating journalists, and allow them to cover issues of public interest freely.”

Mahir Sagvan, director of the Xabir media agency, told CPJ that he called the Asayish after Kashani failed to show up for work.

“Asayish said they had no clue about his whereabouts and stated that he’s not in their custody,” Sagvan said. “After four hours, they raided his house, and told us that Islam was arrested.“

He told CPJ he believed Kashani was arrested due to his “consistent voicing criticism against the government and corruption of the ruling parties.”

Speda TV director Abdulkarim Ahmad told CPJ that Kashani’s arrest was “entirely unlawful with no justification.”

“We are sure that the grounds for his arrest are related to his journalistic activities,” he said. “He always stands with his people and criticizes the government and local authorities, but without any defamation.”

Ahmed Kashani, the journalist’s brother, told CPJ that “about four hours after his arrest, a vehicle carrying five Asayish members conducted a raid on Islam’s residence without presenting a court warrant. They conducted a thorough search and departed without seizing any items.”

He added that Asayish forces confirmed Kashani’s detention at the agency’s headquarters in Zakho but refused to give any reason for his arrest.

Speda and Xabir TV are both associated with the Kurdistan Islamic Union, a local Islamist party.

CPJ repeatedly called Zakho Asayish head Shvan Sindi for comment but did not receive any reply. CPJ emailed the Kurdistan Regional Government but did not immediately receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On the evening of Thursday, July 20, Asayish security forces raided Baroshky’s home in the northwest city of Duhok and arrested him, according to news reports and two people familiar with his case who spoke to CPJ.

Before his arrest, Baroshky criticized the extended sentence issued earlier that day to imprisoned journalist Sherwan Sherwani at a press conference and called for protests against the decision, saying, “today it is against Sherwan Sherwani and me, tomorrow it will be against you and your family.”

As of Friday, CPJ could not determine where the journalist was being held or whether he had been accused of a crime.

“The arrest of journalist Omed Baroshky from his home in Iraqi Kurdistan is highly alarming. Authorities must disclose his whereabouts at once,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour, in Washington D.C. “Iraqi Kurdish authorities must stop their campaign of intimidation against the press and allow all journalists to work freely.”

Baroshky is director and founder of Rast Media, an outlet that was shuttered after Asayish forces raided its Duhok office in April.

Mahir Baroshky, Omed’s brother, told CPJ that authorities arrested the journalist at about 9 p.m.

“We don’t know about his whereabouts yet and haven’t been notified by Asayish forces,” he said.

Ayhan Saeed, the Dohuk representative of local press freedom group Metro Center for Journalists’ Rights and Advocacy, told CPJ that Baroshky’s arrest was part of “a pattern in Duhok” of authorities arbitrarily arresting people.

Baroshky was previously arrested in September 2020 and was imprisoned until February 2022 in retaliation for his posts on social media. Earlier this month, Baroshky told CPJ that Rast Media remained shuttered even though the outlet had acquired the necessary license to resume work. He added that Asayish forces had not returned equipment confiscated during the raid on the outlet in April.

In an interview with CPJ after the closure of his outlet, Baroshky told CPJ that “freedom of media and freedom of expression in Iraqi Kurdistan are an illusion.” CPJ has documented numerous incidents of journalists being attacked, arrested, or detained in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2021, Niyaz Abdullah – a CPJ International Press Freedom Award honoree – fled to France to escape threats against her after criticizing Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s crackdown on press freedom.

CPJ repeatedly called Duhok Asayish director Zeravan Baroshki and regional government spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani for comment but did not receive any replies. CPJ emailed the prime minister of Kurdistan’s office but did not receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On Thursday, July 20, the Erbil criminal court sentenced Sherwani to an additional four years in prison over a complaint by the Erbil Adult Correctional Directorate for allegedly fabricating documents, according to news reports as well as the journalist’s lawyer and brother, who both spoke to CPJ over the phone.

Sherwani, who has been imprisoned since October 2020, was previously scheduled to be released on September 9, 2023, after his sentence was reduced by Kurdistan Regional President Nechirvan Barzani.

“Iraqi Kurdish authorities must drop all charges against journalist Sherwan Sherwani and free him immediately,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “With the latest decision to extend his imprisonment by four years, Iraqi Kurdish authorities are showing their determination to tell the world how vicious they can be against journalists.”

Sherwani’s lawyer, Ramazan Tartisi, told CPJ that the journalist was accused of falsely signing fellow imprisoned journalist Ghudar Zebari‘s name on a petition submitted by several prisoners in August 2022. Tartisi told CPJ that Zebari was in solitary confinement at the time but had given Sherwani permission to sign on his behalf. 

At a hearing on Thursday, “Zebari confirmed his consent for Sherwani to sign on his behalf, but the judge disregarded that and still imposed punishment on Sherwani,” Tartisi said.

The journalist received 2.5 years under Article 295 of the penal code, which pertains to falsifying documents involving debt or property, and 1.5 years under Article 298, which involves knowingly using a falsified document.

Sherwani’s legal team plans to appeal the decision, according to Tartisi, who described the decision as “unjust and harsh.” Sherwani and Zebari were both sentenced on February 16, 2021, on charges of destabilizing the security and stability of the Kurdistan region.

Barzan Sherwani, the journalist’s brother, described the ruling as “politicized,” adding, “our family will not be subject to such pressure.”

CPJ emailed the Iraqi Kurdish Ministry of Justice for comment but did not immediately receive any response. CPJ also repeatedly called the director of Erbil Adult Correctional Directorate for comment but no one answered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

“Turkish authorities must immediately release the defendants and drop the terrorism charges, which are solely based on their journalistic work,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should also take necessary steps to ensure that pretrial arrest cannot be weaponized against the members of the press.”

The journalists and media worker were charged with membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They are employed by local ARİ, PEL, and PİYA production companies and produce Kurdish-focused shows and content, which the indictment alleged were propaganda for PKK. The government has designated PKK as a terrorist organization. 

The defendants — 15 of whom have been under pretrial arrest for 13 months — have denied the charges and, if convicted, face up to 15 years imprisonment under Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws. 

Turkey was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with 40 behind bars at the time of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census. Of those, more than half were Kurdish journalists.

CPJ’s email to the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor’s office did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Monday, June 26, police detained Yanardağ, chief editor for the critical online outlet and TV broadcaster TELE1, at the Istanbul studios of his outlet, after he criticized authorities over the prison conditions of Abdullah Öcalan, the convicted leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which Turkey considers as a terrorist organization.

On Tuesday, an Istanbul court ordered his formal arrest pending an investigation into charges of “making propaganda” for a terrorist organization.

“Turkish authorities must release Merdan Yanardağ, who is being held simply for his political commentary,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Yanardağ’s arrest is a challenge to all Turkish journalists and commentators and can only be seen as a means of intimidating them from discussing sensitive issues. Authorities must work to improve the country’s freedom of speech rather than continue to hinder it.”

During a June 20 broadcast, Yanardağ spoke about Öcalan, calling him “the longest serving political prisoner,” and arguing that he should have been released by that date. On June 26, the journalist said his words were taken out of context, and he was not praising Öcalan or any terrorist organization.

CPJ’s email to the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office did not immediately receive any reply.

Turkish authorities have repeatedly arrested journalists across the country for their alleged ties to purported terrorist groups. In April, authorities detained dozens of journalists allegedly tied to the PKK. At the time of CPJ’s latest prison census, on December 1, 2022, at least 40 journalists were held in Turkish prisons.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Safiye Alagaş lost a year of her life, which cannot be compensated by any means, just like numerous other journalists in Turkey who were punished without a conviction by the common method of prolonged pretrial detention,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative, who attended the trial. “Turkish authorities must stop prosecuting Alagaş and other journalists for simply covering the news, and release all jailed members of the press.” 

Authorities arrested Alagaş in June 2022 alongside 14 other journalists and charged her with being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the government has designated as a terrorist organization, according to the 383-page indictment reviewed by CPJ. 

In court on Thursday, Alagaş denied the accusation, and the prosecution presented her outlet’s news articles, photos, social media posts, and other content as evidence. She is expected back in court on November 9, 2023. If convicted, she faces 7.5 to 15 years imprisonment.  

CPJ’s email to the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Saturday, April 29, police detained Yılmaz, an editor for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency, and Müftüoğlu, co-chair of the local media advocacy group Dicle Fırat Journalists Association, in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır in connection with an investigation by prosecutors in Ankara, the capital, according to multiple news reports.

Ankara prosecutors alleged that Yılmaz and Müftüoğlu have ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group and political party that Turkey classifies as a terrorist group.

Separately, on April 29, police detained six female journalists in Istanbul’s Kadıköy neighborhood for publicly reading a statement protesting the arrests and prosecution of journalists in Ankara and Diyarbakır, according to reports and tweets by advocacy organizations.

On May 1, Istanbul police attacked and briefly detained at least two journalists as they covered Labor Day marches and protests, according to news reports.

Turkish authorities have arrested and charged several members of the Kurdish media over recent months with similar allegations of PKK connections, ahead of the country’s May 14 presidential election.

“The detainment of journalists Sedat Yılmaz and Dicle Müftüoğlu, on top of the arrests in Diyarbakır and the allegations of violence toward these journalists and others who showed solidarity with them in Istanbul, are signs of distress from a government that’s worried about the upcoming elections,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “The authorities must immediately release the journalists in custody and seriously investigate claims of police brutality.”

After the detainment in Diyarbakır, police drove Yılmaz and Müftüoğlu to Ankara. While they were being transported, the journalists alleged that their hands were tied behind their backs for 15 hours, they were deprived of food for 24 hours, insulted by the police officers, and Yılmaz was kicked in the head by one of the officers, resulting in hearing loss, according to multiple news reports. The pair are still detained, and Yılmaz’s lawyer has filed a criminal complaint concerning his client’s injuries and treatment.

The six female journalists were released on April 29 without charge, and later filed legal complaints against the police. They are: 

1. Eylem Nazlıer, a reporter for the leftist daily Evrensel. She reported that police officers slapped her face multiple times and punched her head once as her hands were cuffed behind her back. 
2. Pınar Gayıp, a reporter for the leftist Etkin News Agency (ETHA)
3. Serpil Ünal, a reporter for the leftist news website Mücadele Birliği 
4. Esra Soybir, a reporter for the leftist news website Direnişteyiz
5. Yadigar Aygün, a reporter for the leftist news website Gazete Karınca  
6. Zeynep Kuray, a freelance reporter who covers social events and protests

Gayıp and the other journalists also reported wounds to their wrists from the plastic cuffs that were tightened too tightly, according to those reports. The journalists were taken to a hospital for medical treatment before the police station, as is legally required.

On April 25, authorities in Diyarbakır detained at least nine journalists and a media lawyer for alleged ties to PKK. As of April 29, five have been released: 

• Media lawyer Resul Temur
• Osman Akın, news editor for the pro-Kurdish daily newspaper Yeni Yaşam
• Kadir Bayram, a camera operator for PIYA production company
• Salih Keleş and Mehmet Yalçın, two journalists whose outlets CPJ could not immediately confirm. 

CPJ’s emails to the chief prosecutors’ offices of Ankara and Istanbul didn’t receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Tuesday, April 25, authorities in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır detained at least 10 journalists for their alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

As of Friday, one of those journalists had been released, five had been formally arrested, and one more has been taken into custody, according to multiple media reports.

“Turkey’s ongoing crackdown on the Kurdish media over alleged terrorism ties clearly shows how authorities are determined to silence dissenting voices ahead of the country’s elections,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities should release all journalists held in custody at once and stop abusing the country’s anti-terror laws to harass the press.”

Kadri Esen, publisher of the Kurdish-language newspaper Xwebûn, was released by a court under judicial control on Thursday, according to those news reports.

Of the previously detained journalists, on Thursday authorities formally arrested Mezopotamya News Agency editor Abdurrahman Gök and reporter Mehmet Şah Oruç; JINNEWS reporter Bertitan Canözer; and Remzi Akkaya, whose employer CPJ could not immediately determine. On Friday, authorities also formally arrested Mikail Barut, a journalist whose employer CPJ could not immediately determine, news reports said.

The proceedings in the cases of the other four journalists detained Tuesday, as well as media lawyer Resul Temur, were ongoing at the time of publication, those media reports said.

Separately, on Thursday police in the southeastern city of Adıyaman detained Kadir Bayram, a camera operator for Diyarbakır-based PIYA production company, and planned to bring him to Diyarbakır, reports said.

As CPJ has documented, authorities have recently detained Kurdish journalists in Diyarbakır and Ankara, and charged them months later with PKK membership on flimsy evidence. If charged and convicted of membership in a terrorist organization, the journalists could face up to 15 years in prison under Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws.

Prior to the latest detentions, Turkey was already one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, with 40 behind bars as of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census.

CPJ emailed the chief prosecutor’s office of Diyarbakır for comment but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On Monday, April 17, eight officers with the regional Asayish intelligence agency raided Rast Media’s office in the city of Duhok and detained director and founder Omed Baroshky and editor Yasir Abdulrahman, according to news reports and Baroshky and Abdulrahman, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

Officers held Baroshky and Abdulrahman at the Asayish’s local headquarters for about two hours and then released them without any explanation for the raid or their detention. Baroshky told CPJ that the officers confiscated four computers, two cameras, books, and other reporting equipment, and had not returned it as of Thursday.

Separately on Monday, two unidentified men attacked KNN TV reporter Ahmad Mustafa and camera operator Omer Khabati in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil, according to news reports and those journalists, who spoke with CPJ by phone. In a statement later that day, the Erbil Asayish forces said that they had arrested one of the assailants.

“Iraqi Kurdistan authorities must immediately return all equipment confiscated from Rast Media and cease harassing its journalists, and ensure that those who separately attacked a team from KNN TV are held to account,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour, in Washington, D.C. “Authorities must do more to protect members of the press from arbitrary detentions and attacks.”

Baroshky told CPJ that Asayish officers did not present any arrest warrant when they detained him and Abdulrahman. The officers locked the outlet’s office after the raid, and it remained closed as of Thursday while the organization’s staff continued to work remotely, Baroshky said.

Abdulrahman told CPJ that Asayish officers threatened that they would not be able to work from their office again. Authorities demanded Baroshky and Abdulrahman’s personal contact information and requested they comply with any future summons, they said.

In a statement, the Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy, a local press freedom group, said that Baroshky and Abdulrahman’s detention without a court order violated Kurdistan’s press law.

Baroshky was previously arrested in September 2020 and was imprisoned until February 2022 in retaliation for his posts on social media.

CPJ called Duhok Asayish Director Zeravan Baroshky for comment, but did not receive any reply.

In Erbil, Mustafa told CPJ that he was filming a show about Ramadan when “I was unexpectedly attacked by two unknown civilians.” The men punched Mustafa in the face and knocked him to the ground.

“The attack happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to react or even see the person coming towards me,” Mustafa said. “Within seconds, someone else attacked me from behind and snapped my neck down, they continued punching me without telling me why they were doing so.”

Khabati told CPJ that one of the assailants punched him in the head as well, and that he tried to film the attack but was unable to do so. Mustafa told CPJ that he had filed a lawsuit against the unknown assailant.

Photos and videos reviewed by CPJ show scratches on Musfata’s neck and face, and rips to his clothing.

KNN TV, the broadcast arm of the Kurdish News Network, is affiliated to the Change Movement political party.

CPJ called Erbil Asayish spokesperson Ashti Majeed for comment on the status of the investigation into the attack but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

“By issuing prison sentences to Mehmet Güleş and İsmail Çoban, Turkish authorities have yet again abused the country’s anti-terror legislation,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Authorities should not contest the journalists’ appeals and should cease their practice of retaliatory prosecutions against members of the media covering Kurdish issues.”

On Tuesday, April 18, local media outlets reported that two courts in eastern Turkey separately found Mehmet Güleş and İsmail Çoban guilty of making propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. Both journalists pleaded not guilty.

The Second Elazığ Court of Serious Crimes sentenced Güleş, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency, to 21 months and 25 days in prison, but then delayed the enforcement of that sentence, reports said. During his trial, authorities’ evidence included news stories Güleş shared on social media by his former employer, the shuttered pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency.

Separately, the Fifth Diyarbakır Court of Serious Crimes sentenced Çoban, the former responsible news editor for the shuttered Kurdish-language outlet Azadiya Welat, to 18 months and 22 days in prison, and did not delay the execution of that sentence, reports said. During his trial, authorities presented news stories by Azadiya Welat about the PKK as evidence. 

Çoban has been imprisoned since 2018 on other terror-related charges related to his work.

Resul Temur, a lawyer who represents both Güleş and Çoban, told CPJ via messaging app that he believed the journalists were being punished for their work, and said they intend to appeal the verdicts. CPJ emailed the chief prosecutor’s offices of Diyarbakır and Elazığ for comment but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On Wednesday, April 12, the 4th Court of Serious Crimes in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır charged 17 Kurdish journalists and a media worker with membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the government has designated as a terrorist organization, according to multiple news reports and the 728-page indictment, which CPJ reviewed. They face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty under Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws. 

The defendants are expected back in court on July 11, 2023, and have denied any ties to terrorism during their interrogations last year and their testimonies summarized in the indictment.

Fifteen of the defendants have been in pretrial arrest without charge since June 2022.

“Turkish authorities must immediately release the journalists and the media worker who have been behind bars since June 2022 and stop charging members of the press reporting on Turkey’s Kurdish issue under the country’s terrorism laws,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Turkey has long been one of the world leading jailers of journalists and this latest crackdown shows authorities’ fear of any semblance of independent reporting.”

Turkey was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with 40 behind bars at the time of CPJ’s December 1, 2022, prison census. Of those, more than half were Kurdish journalists.

According to the indictment, the journalists and media worker are employed by local ARİ, PEL, and PİYA production companies and produce Kurdish-focused shows on news, culture, arts, political debates, and documentaries. 

The indictment alleges that the content produced was propaganda for the PKK and its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan. The content is broadcast by European-based, pro-Kurdish broadcasters Sterk TV and Medya TV.

The 14 journalists and media worker who have been charged and remain in detention are: 

• Abdurrahman Öncü, a camera operator for PEL Production Company
• Aziz Oruç, an editor for pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency and freelance producer
• Elif Üngür, a broadcast reporter for PİYA Production Company
• İbrahim Koyuncu, a freelance camera operator and editor
• Lezgin Akdeniz, a camera operator for ARİ Production Company
• Mazlum Güler, a former camera operator for PİYA and former owner of ARİ
• Mehmet Şahin, a broadcast reporter and commentator for PEL
• Mehmet Ali Ertaş, a news editor for the Kurdish-language weekly Xwebün and a producer at PEL
• Neşe Toprak, a broadcast reporter for ARI
• Ömer Çelik, freelance producer
• Ramazan Geciken, camera operator for PİYA
• Serdar Altan, a broadcast reporter for PEL
• Suat Doğuhan, camera operator and owner of PİYA
• Zeynel Abidin Bulut, a broadcast reporter for PEL and an editor for Xwebün
• Remziye Temel, an accountant for ARİ

The following journalists were also indicted but remain free pending the trial:

• Esmer Tunç, camera operator for PEL
• Kadir Bayram, camera operator for PİYA
• Mehmet Yalçın, camera operator for ARİ

Safiye Alagaş, an editor for the pro-Kurdish news website JINNEWS, was arraigned with the other journalists in June 2022 and remains imprisoned, their lawyer, Resul Tamur, told CPJ via messaging app. She will be prosecuted separately alongside JINNEWS reporter Gülşen Koçuk on charges of terrorist organization membership and terrorism propaganda. 

CPJ’s email to the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor’s office did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

In February, authorities indicted 10 Kurdish journalists and accused them of membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

On March 16, authorities in the southern city of Mersin detained Bayram, who works in distribution for the pro-Kurdish daily newspaper Yeni Yaşam, as part of the investigation into those journalists, according to multiple news reports and court documents reviewed by CPJ.

On March 21, the First Court of Penal Peace in Ankara, the capital, formally arrested Bayram and also accused him of being a member of the PKK, according to those sources. He is being held in Ankara’s Sincan Prison.

“Turkish authorities should immediately release Yeni Yaşam employee Hamdullah Bayram and all journalists who are being held behind bars on trumped-up terrorism allegations,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Authorities must stop retaliating against journalists and other media outlet employees over outlets’ coverage.”

Authorities questioned Bayram about times he retweeted his employer on Twitter as well as books, magazines, and other printed material confiscated from houses in Mersin and in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır, according to those court documents, which said that Bayram denied the accusations and did not have a home in Mersin.

Authorities also alleged that Bayram had incriminating material on his cell phone, which he blamed on the fact that he bought the phone second-hand and it still contained data from its previous owner, those documents said. He said he was unfamiliar with people whom authorities accused him of contacting via WhatsApp, and said he did not use that program.

CPJ emailed the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

The students were protesting the lack of water, fuel, electricity, and other basic necessities at their dormitories. According to the journalists and CPJ’s review of videos that news outlets published online, the media crews that were obstructed from covering the protests were Esta Media Network, a network affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK); the independent agency Bwar Media; Shar Press, an independent media agency owned by veteran journalist Kamal Rauf; NRT TV, owned by businessman and politician Shaswar Abdulwahid; Kobas, a media agency affiliated with the PUK; and Wllat, a media agency affiliated with the PUK.

All of the journalists were later allowed to continue their jobs, except for Bwar Media correspondent Nabaz Rashad, whose equipment was destroyed.

Esta News reporter Dyar Hussen, who along with his cameraman Ayub Salih were among the journalists attacked, told CPJ that “the dormitory’s authorities assigned a specific location for the journalists to cover from.”

Hussen said he covered the protest on Facebook Live without any issues, and then more media crews arrived and started covering it as well. Suddenly, Najat Zrar, head of the dormitory, “came out from the main gate of the dormitory and attacked us all,” said Hussen. “He threatened us and asked us to quit covering and turn off the cameras and mobile phones.”

Bwar Media’s Rashad told CPJ that Zrar “attacked us in front of other security forces. All of us journalists opposed his attempt and were determined to cover.”

Zrar broke Rashad’s mobile phone, neck mic, and lighting kits, ending his livestream, the journalist said.

Shar Press correspondent Hazhar Anwar told CPJ that “the attacker was abusing us verbally and warning us not to cover and to leave the place, but we opposed him and were keen to cover.”

Anwar said the team’s cameraman continued covering the protests after Anwar’s mobile phone and tripod being broken.

Reached for comment over the phone, Zrar told CPJ, “I didn’t want to attack them but to talk to them, but I admit that I was uncontrollably furious. It was a misunderstanding, and I’m ready to explain if needed.”

Separately, on February 20, security guards at the Region Trade Bank in Erbil interrupted NRT TV’s live stream coverage of a crowd gathered in front of the bank to exchange Iraqi dinars for U.S. dollars at a rate of 1,320 dinars to the dollar, which compared with the official rate of 1,530 dinars to the dollar.

NRT TV correspondent Choman Mahmood, who was covering the crowd with cameraman Ahmed Mohammed, told CPJ via phone that the crew was forced to leave. “The bank’s guards asked me to quit interviewing people standing in long queues and to stop covering,” he said. “They pushed me backwards and forced me to stop.”

CPJ reached out to the bank for comment via phone, but they declined to comment.

Local press freedom organization Metro Center for Journalists’ Rights and Advocacy documented 431 violations committed against 301 journalists and media outlets in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2022, including physical attacks, detentions, and threats.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On February 8, the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office indicted 10 Kurdish journalists, nine of whom have been under pretrial arrest since late October, on the charge of membership in a terrorist organization. The indictment was made available to the journalists’ lawyers and CPJ on Friday, February 17, after it was approved by the court.

“Turkish authorities’ recent indictment of 10 journalists on terrorism charges is the latest in a long string of prosecutions of members of the press in retaliation for their reporting,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “The authorities should drop the charges, release all journalists imprisoned for their work, and put an end to equating journalism with terrorism.”

Those indicted were: pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya News Agency editor Diren Yurtsever; Mezopotamya reporters Berivan Altan, Ceylan Şahinli, Deniz Nazlım, Emrullah Acar, Hakan Yalçın, Salman Güzelyüz, and Zemo Ağgöz Yiğitsoy, freelance journalist Öznur Değer; pro-Kurdish news website JİNNEWS reporter Ümmü Habibe Eren; and former Mezopotamya reporting intern Mehmet Günhan. They were charged with being members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to those reports and the indictment, which was reviewed by CPJ.

The prosecutors alleged that Mezopotamya and JİNNEWS are directly linked to the PKK, including having financial ties, and cited more than 100 news stories about the outlawed group as evidence. Other evidence used against the journalists included tapped phone calls, travel records, printed and digital material found at their homes and workplaces, social media posts, small financial transfers, and the testimony of a secret witness.

CPJ asked Resul Tamur, a lawyer for the journalists, if there was any basis for the allegations of financial ties to the PKK; he said the prosecution had “opinion-based” evidence that was “not solid.” The journalists have previously denied the charges, according to the indictment.

The defendants face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty under Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws.

All the defendants except intern Günhan were ordered imprisoned by an Ankara court in late October. Ağgöz, the mother of a newborn baby, was put under house arrest; this was lifted in late December, but she was banned from foreign travel. 

CPJ emailed the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office and the Justice Ministry for comment but received no immediate reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

The team, which consisted of Ahmed and two camera operators, Hevi Khalid and Bawar Rafiq, traveled to the border town of Tawella to report on cross-border smuggling with Iran, according to that report, which said the team had received permission to report from the Iraqi Kurdish Asayish intelligence agency and was accompanied by an Asayish agent at the time they were detained.

While they were filming, an armed masked man in civilian clothes shouted at the crew to stop recording and pointed a gun at Ahmed and Khalid, Ahmed told CPJ. Minutes later, four or five additional armed men arrived at the scene, followed by an Iraqi border guard vehicle, Ahmed said. The border authorities detained the crew and the Asayish agent and took them to the border control headquarters in Byara district.

“They investigated us, asked why we are doing the report, and searched our cameras,” Ahmed said, adding that the border guards “emphasized” that the crew should not report on kolbars, or laborers who transport goods across borders.

Khalid told CPJ via phone that the crew had recorded some footage but hid those recordings from the border guards by swapping out their cameras’ memory cards with spare ones. When the guards asked them to erase any recordings, the crew showed them the empty memory cards.

The team was released after the intervention of the Halabja governor, the mayor of the city of Halabja, and a member of a local press freedom group, according to Ahmed.

Khalid told CPJ that the border guards asked the team to sign a pledge not to report from that area in the future, but they refused.

Ibrahim Muhammed, regiment commander of the second battalion of the Iraqi border guards, told CPJ via phone that the team was required to coordinate with the border authorities and not the Asayish to report from that area.

“Any media coverage at borderlines is forbidden, unless they get a formal permission letter from our main headquarter in Sulaymaniyah,” he said.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On January 10, police raided Kartal’s Istanbul home and took him into custody; on January 13, a local court ordered him to be held in pretrial detention on the suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization, according to news reports.

Kartal covers human rights, corruption, and labor issues for the leftist news website Karşı Mahalle and hosts a news show for independent outlet Özgün TV, those reports said. In court documents reviewed by CPJ, authorities said the basis for his arrest was Kartal’s resemblance to a man in a 2004 photograph of members of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Kartal pleaded not guilty and denied that he was the man in the photograph, the documents said.

“It is simply unacceptable that Turkish authorities arrested journalist Sezgin Kartal for what amounts to his resemblance to a man in a 19-year-old photograph,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities should release Kartal immediately and cease filing spurious terrorism charges against members of the press.”

Ülkü Şahin, a member of Kartal’s legal team, told CPJ via email that police and prosecutors asked Kartal about the types of stories he wrote as a journalist.

Erselen Aktan, another of Kartal’s lawyers, told CPJ via phone that he believed Kartal would not have been arrested on such flimsy charges if he was not a member of the press. Aktan told CPJ that the investigation into Kartal was opened in 2020, but he was only arrested after he became more active promoting his work on social media.

CPJ emailed the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On Sunday, October 9, officers from the Kurdistan Special Counter-Terrorism group arrested Qashqayi, the editor-in-chief of the privately owned agency Bwar News, and Ali, the senior editor of Bwar News, on the Sulaymaniyah-Erbil main road while the journalists were traveling to the capital Erbil from the eastern city of Sulaymaniyah after a reporting trip, according to news reports and statements from Bwar News and two local press freedom groups. The counter-terrorism group is affiliated with the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party. 

The journalists were arrested after two criminal complaints were made against them, according to those sources. One of the complaints was made by the counter-terrorism group against both journalists, however, CPJ could not confirm further details about the complaint.

The other, a lawsuit, was filed by Awat Sheikh Janab, minister of finance and economy of the Kurdistan region, against Qashqayi, according to those sources. The lawsuit, filed on June 8, alleges that Qashqayi violated Article 2 of the penal code for misuse of communication devices after Bwar News published a report on Janab, according to an official at the Ministry of Finance and Economy for the Kurdistan region, who spoke to CPJ by phone on the condition of anonymity, saying they’re not allowed to comment publicly.

If convicted, the journalist faces a sentence of up to five years imprisonment and a fine between 1 and 5 million Iraqi dinars (US$685 and $3,425). 

The Bwar News report, published on April 28, alleged that two senior officials of the Kurdistan Democratic Party visited Janab at his home and threatened to “publish his secrets” if he didn’t end his boycott of meetings of Iraqi Kurdistan’s council of ministers after being blamed for the region’s financial crisis. The ministry official who declined to give their name told CPJ that the allegations are “totally baseless.” CPJ called Janab several times but did not receive any response.

“Iraqi Kurdistan authorities are making a very alarming habit out of detaining journalists,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Security forces must free Bwar News’ journalists immediately and stop arresting journalists for doing their jobs.”

The journalists stayed in solitary confinement for one night and were then transferred, on Monday, to Asayish security forces and moved to Asayish prison, according to a representative of Bwar News, who spoke to CPJ by phone but said they could not give their name because of company policy.

The journalists had not been informed of the complaints against them before their arrest, according to that source and Badriya Ismael, an Iraqi Kurdistan parliament member, who joined several others in visiting the journalists in prison on Monday and spoke to CPJ by phone. “Asayish authorities didn’t tell us anything about the nature of the complaints,” Ismael said, adding that the case is still under investigation and the journalists are in good health. 

CPJ emailed the office of the Kurdistan Special Counter-Terrorism group and called Yasin Sami, the spokesperson of Sulaymaniyah Asayish security forces, and Sarkawt Ahmed, the spokesperson of Sulaymaniyah police, but did not receive any responses.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, Soran Kamaran, a correspondent for the Kurdistan 24 broadcaster owned by Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, was seriously wounded while covering Iran’s ongoing shelling on Kurdish groups opposed to Iran, according to reports, video of the shelling and Kamaran’s transfer to the hospital, a statement by the broadcaster, a local press freedom group, and Kurdistan 24’s newsroom manager.

Kamaran was injured by a missile strike in the town of Altun Kupri, in Kirkuk, northern Iraq. The cameraman with him was not hurt, Kurdistan 24’s newsroom manager and anchor, Kovan Izzat, told CPJ by phone. 

Kurdistan 24 said in a statement that Kamaran was taken to Erbil emergency hospital for treatment and admitted to an intensive care unit. “Soran underwent two surgeries for his right leg and belly. He is fine now and no threat to his life,” Izzat told CPJ. “He was wounded severely, his right leg was broken with injuries all over his belly.” Izzat did not know how long Kamaran is expected to be in the hospital.

“Iran’s drone strikes inevitably cause civilian casualties, including those of journalists documenting the attacks,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “Iranian and Kurdish authorities must take serious measures to avoid harming civilians and to hold anyone violating international law accountable.”

Kamaran’s last video, posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday, September 28, shows him reporting from the area in which he was injured. In the video, he says, “This is the headquarters of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, which have been targeted by Iranian missiles and suicide drones. Initial reports indicate that six members were killed and dozens injured.”

On Saturday, September 24, 2022, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps fired dozens of suicide drones and missiles to strike several Iranian-Kurdish opposition parties based in the Kurdistan region, killing at least nine and injuring over 30 others, according to multiple media reports.

On Wednesday, September 28, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq called to “cease immediately” its attacks on Iraq, including Kurdistan, in a tweet.

CPJ could not immediately find a contact for Kamaran’s family. CPJ emailed the Iranian U.N. mission for comment on Wednesday, September 28, but did not immediately receive a response.

Later on Wednesday, in the same town of Altun Kupri, a Peshmerga soldier confiscated the camera of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)-owned Kurdsat News broadcaster cameraman Issa Nuradeen, according to Nuradeen, a Facebook video of the incident posted by the broadcaster, and a report by a local press freedom group.

Nuradeen and Kurdsat News reporter Karwan Mohammed told CPJ over the phone that they returned to the Kurdistan Freedom Party headquarters to help Kamaran. “When we got there, the (Kurdish) Peshmerga forces were putting him into an ambulance. I tried to film but they blocked me and took my camera,” Nuradeen said. “They later returned it broken.”

Mohammed, who filmed the camera confiscation on his mobile phone, said the Peshmerga soldier who took the camera “told us we are not allowed to cover the situation.”

CPJ on Wednesday, September 28, called Nuri Hama Ali, a Peshmerga commander in Kirkuk, for comment, but did not immediately get a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Monday, September 19, Şahin, a freelance journalist who was a former reporter for the pro-Kurdish privately owned daily newspaper Yeni Yaşam, was sentenced to six years and three months in prison for the charge of being a member of a terrorist organization by the Ninth Court of Serious Crimes in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır, according to reports and tweets of Platform for Independent Journalism, known as P24, which monitored the September 19 sentencing hearing. 

The court did not issue an arrest warrant for the journalist who was not present at the hearing but extended her standing foreign travel ban pending appeal of the charge, according to those sources. Şahin’s lawyer, Resul Tamur, told the court that the case against the journalist was based on secret witness testimonies that he called “lies,” and urged Şahin’s acquittal, the reports said.

“Turkish authorities should not fight the appeal of journalist Hatice Şahin,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s Program Director, in New York. “Turkey should stop charging journalists with terrorism when they are doing their jobs and start taking measures to improve the country’s press freedom record.”

According to CPJ’s review of the 78-page indictment against the journalist, the first 73 pages focus on the history and gatherings of the Democratic Society Congress, known as the DTK, a nongovernmental group that authorities allege is connected to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as PKK. The evidence against the journalist in the indictment relates to her reporting on the group’s meetings, such as taking flights from Istanbul to Diyarbakır on the dates the group had gatherings in 2017; personal notes and agenda; wiretapped phone records of short conversations with individuals on where to meet and when; and secret witness testimonies claiming that Şahin was involved with terrorism. Şahin has pleaded not guilty of the charge, according to the indictment.

Since 2018, several people have been arrested and put on trial for their alleged involvement with the group, according to reports. One of the journalists, Ayşegül Doğan, received the same sentence and charge as Şahin in 2020.

CPJ emailed the Diyarbakır chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Earlier that day, a drone attack targeted a group of fighters with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in the Soran village of Tarawa, killing two and injuring others, according to a local news report.

Kaifi told CPJ that he and a friend attempted to pass through a checkpoint manned by Asayish intelligence agents to cover the incident, but the officers would not allow them to enter “and said that I can’t cover it.” He told the security forces that he had a right to cover the incident and asked why some journalists were given access, but they continued to deny him entry to the area, he said.

At about 10:30 p.m. that evening, as Kaifi was preparing to do a live broadcast nearly 2 kilometers away, two vehicles carrying Asayish agents approached him, confiscated his phone and tripod, and handcuffed and arrested him, Kaifi said. The agents took Kaifi to the Asayish station in Khalifan district, and then to the Asayish headquarters in the city of Soran, where they put him in solitary confinement, he said.

“I told them many times that I didn’t do anything wrong, I am only a journalist,” he told CPJ, saying the agents did not listen to his pleas. Agents held Kaifi in solitary confinement until about 2 p.m. on September 6, and then brought him back to the Khalifan Asayish station, he said.

At that station, agents asked Kaifi to sign a pledge stating that he would not cover such incidents “without Asayish pre-coordination,” he told CPJ. Asayish agents told Kaifi that other journalists complied with such regulations, he said, adding that he told them that he was not aware of any such rules.

“They told me, either you sign this pledge, or I will stay at the prison,” Kaifi said, adding that he signed the pledge and was released.

Ismail Ibrahim, head of the Soran branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate union, told CPJ in a phone interview that his group told Asayish authorities that there was “no need” to arrest members of the press for such alleged regulatory violations, and said that his organization asked the Asayish to give them a report on the reason for Kaifi’s arrest.

NRT newsroom manager Mariwan Hassan told CPJ in a phone interview that it was “not fair” that Asayish forces “block our staff” from covering news in the area while other news groups were allowed to do so. He added that NRT news crews are facing a “huge” amount of pressure from Erbil officials, especially in Soran.

CPJ contacted Erbil Asayish spokesperson Ashti Majeed for comment via messaging app, but did not receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On Thursday, August 25, authorities at the Sabiha Gökçen Airport in Istanbul detained Areteos, a reporter for the Greek newspaper Real and author of two books on Turkish politics, after he arrived in the country from Brussels, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, posted a statement online, and recounted the incident in an interview with Real’s affiliated radio station.

Authorities held Areteos for about seven hours and gave him a document saying he was barred from entering Turkey “for reasons of public order,” but did not give a specific reason for the denial, according to those sources. The journalist wrote in his statement that he had reported on Turkey for 23 years and was accredited to work as a foreign correspondent in Turkey, and that he believed the denial was retaliation for his work.

Areteos said in that interview that he was put back on a plane to Brussels; he said his denial was not an official ruling that could be appealed.

“Greek journalist Evangelos Areteos’ long history working in Turkey should not come to an unceremonious end due to authorities’ disapproval of his work,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “Authorities must allow Areteos to return to Turkey, where he should be able to report freely and without fear of retaliation.”

Areteos wrote in his statement that, during his detention, authorities questioned him about a visit he made to northern Syria in 2015 and his travels throughout Turkey; he wrote that he believed those travels were the reason he was denied entry into the country.

The journalist’s recent work included reporting from southeastern Turkey, where he interviewed local people about life, culture, and politics, including the contentious status of Kurds in Turkey. He told CPJ that he reported daily on social and political developments in the Kurdish region of Syria.

He added in his statement that authorities also asked him about contacts on his phone related to Kurds in northeastern Syria, which he said were part of his reporting.

CPJ emailed Turkey’s Interior Ministry for comment, but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

At about noon on Tuesday, August 2, forces affiliated with the Democratic Union Party, the political party in power in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, detained Ferman, a reporter for Rudaw TV, in the city of Qamishli according to a report by his employer and the journalist’s sister, Hamalin Ferman, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Hamalin Ferman told CPJ that authorities had not disclosed where the journalist was being held or the reason for his arrest.

“Authorities in northern Syria must immediately release journalist Barzan Ferman, or disclose his location and the reason for his arrest,” said CPJ Senior Researcher Yeganeh Rezaian. “The Democratic Union Party must halt its censorship efforts against the Rudaw network and allow the broadcaster to work freely and safely.”

Hamalin Ferman told CPJ that her brother was at Rudaw’s office in Qamishli when three masked security officers, one of whom carried a gun, detained him and took him away in a white van. She said the journalist’s family asked local officials and security forces about his status but had not received any responses.

When CPJ contacted Abdullah Sa’dun, a spokesperson of Asayish intelligence agency, the region’s main law enforcement body, via messaging app, he said that he had already spoken with the journalist’s family and would not comment further.

On February 5, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria announced that it was suspending the Rudaw Media Network’s license and the licenses of its employees, claiming the network spread “hate and misinformation.” Ferman had continued working since that suspension, and was detained while helping two colleagues clean and arrange the shuttered office, his sister said.

Hamalin Ferman told CPJ that the journalist’s family was not aware of any threats against the journalist, but added, “maybe he kept it secret.”

Rudaw is affiliated with the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in northern Iraq, and its main office is based in the Iraqi Kurdish capital city of Erbil; it is funded by Nechrivan Barzani, the deputy president of the KDP and the president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, according to CPJ research.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

On the morning of Monday, August 1, members of the Asayish intelligence agency detained Tariq, a reporter for the local broadcaster NRT, and Ahmed, a camera operator for the outlet, while they were interviewing people about the region’s economy in the city of Sulaymaniyah, according to a statement by NRT and the broadcaster’s newsroom manager Mariwan Hassan, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Hassan told CPJ that the Asayish agents confiscated the journalists’ equipment and phones, and had not disclosed any reason for their arrests. That statement said the pair was arrested at the order of the Kurdistan region’s Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani “without any justification or court order.”

“Iraqi Kurdish authorities should immediately release NRT journalists Karzan Tariq and Chenar Ahmed, and refrain from filing any charges against them,” said CPJ senior researcher Yeganeh Rezaian. “Media workers must be allowed to interview members of the public without fear that they will be detained and harassed.”

Hassan told CPJ that Tariq and Ahmed “didn’t commit any crimes or violations, they were doing their journalistic work to get people’s opinions.” He added that this was “not the first time” that Asayish agents had detained employees of the broadcaster.

Iraqi Kurdish authorities previously arrested Tariq and raided NRT’s newsroom in Sulaymaniyah in 2020, as CPJ documented at the time.

NRT is owned by Shaswar Abdulwahid, a businessperson and leader of the opposition New Generation Party, according to news reports.

CPJ contacted Asayish spokesperson Yasin Sami via messaging app for comment, but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

In a July 14 tweet, Geerdink said she was detained on her way to Kobane, a Kurdish-majority town in Syria, near the Turkish border.

“I’m being deported from the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. I almost crossed the border into northeast Syria when suddenly [the] atmosphere changed, I was put in a car with police and brought to Erbil airport,” Geerdink wrote. In the tweet, she wrote that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “arm is long.”

Geerdink has worked in Kurdistan and Turkey for more than a decade, reporting on the plight of the Kurdish minority, including the banned Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), according to her website.

In September 2015, Turkey had deported Geerdink for allegedly aiding a “terrorist organization,” as CPJ reported at the time. In February 2015, she was charged in Turkey with allegedly “making propaganda” for the PKK and Union of Communities in Kurdistan, but was acquitted that April, as CPJ reported.

In another tweet, Geerdink wrote she was traveling for a “big story” for a Dutch magazine. She told CPJ via messaging app on July 14 that she was on assignment for De Groene Amsterdammer.

Geerdink told CPJ that the police who detained her “didn’t tell me anything” and said they had “no information” on the reason for her deportation.

“I had a letter from Groene Amsterdammer, I also had my national and international press card,” she told CPJ. “That was all needed to cross the border, everything was 100 percent in order.”

Geerdink said she got in touch with Hans Akerboom,Dutch Consul Generalfor the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in Erbil. “It was great he came to the airport, because I even didn’t ask for it,” she told CPJ. “The authorities told him that I was ‘persona non grata,’ but they never said something to me like that, they didn’t communicate with me.”

“The Dutch Consul General also told me that I was welcome to come to Kurdistan as a tourist but not as a journalist,” she said, adding, “Of course I don’t want to come as a tourist.”

Ahmed Hoshyar, general manager of Erbil International Airport, told CPJ via WhatsApp messaging app on July 14, that “there were some issues with her passport,” but refused to give further information. He urged CPJ to “talk to the Dutch ConsulGeneral, as he is aware of the case.”

Akerboom told CPJ via WhatsApp on July 14 that he didn’t “know the reason” why Geerdink was deported, adding only that it was “never mentioned.”

CPJ reached out to Jutyar Adil, the Kurdistan Region Government spokesperson, for comment via WhatsApp, but did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

In a July 14 tweet, Geerdink said she was detained on her way to Kobane, a Kurdish-majority town in Syria, near the Turkish border.

“I’m being deported from the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. I almost crossed the border into northeast Syria when suddenly [the] atmosphere changed, I was put in a car with police and brought to Erbil airport,” Geerdink wrote. In the tweet, she wrote that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “arm is long.”

Geerdink has worked in Kurdistan and Turkey for more than a decade, reporting on the plight of the Kurdish minority, including the banned Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), according to her website.

In September 2015, Turkey had deported Geerdink for allegedly aiding a “terrorist organization,” as CPJ reported at the time. In February 2015, she was charged in Turkey with allegedly “making propaganda” for the PKK and Union of Communities in Kurdistan, but was acquitted that April, as CPJ reported.

In another tweet, Geerdink wrote she was traveling for a “big story” for a Dutch magazine. She told CPJ via messaging app on July 14 that she was on assignment for De Groene Amsterdammer.

Geerdink told CPJ that the police who detained her “didn’t tell me anything” and said they had “no information” on the reason for her deportation.

“I had a letter from Groene Amsterdammer, I also had my national and international press card,” she told CPJ. “That was all needed to cross the border, everything was 100 percent in order.”

Geerdink said she got in touch with Hans Akerboom,Dutch Consul Generalfor the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in Erbil. “It was great he came to the airport, because I even didn’t ask for it,” she told CPJ. “The authorities told him that I was ‘persona non grata,’ but they never said something to me like that, they didn’t communicate with me.”

“The Dutch Consul General also told me that I was welcome to come to Kurdistan as a tourist but not as a journalist,” she said, adding, “Of course I don’t want to come as a tourist.”

Ahmed Hoshyar, general manager of Erbil International Airport, told CPJ via WhatsApp messaging app on July 14, that “there were some issues with her passport,” but refused to give further information. He urged CPJ to “talk to the Dutch ConsulGeneral, as he is aware of the case.”

Akerboom told CPJ via WhatsApp on July 14 that he didn’t “know the reason” why Geerdink was deported, adding only that it was “never mentioned.”

CPJ reached out to Jutyar Adil, the Kurdistan Region Government spokesperson, for comment via WhatsApp, but did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Monday, July 18, police arrested Warty, a reporter for the broadcaster KNN TV, while he was on a reporting trip in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Erbil, according to the journalist and his lawyer, Bashdar Hassan, both of whom spoke to CPJ in phone interviews.

Officers took Warty to a local court, where he was charged with criminal defamation; he was then brought back to the police station and released that evening on a bail of 2 million dinars (US$1,340), according to the journalist and his lawyer.

If convicted of defamation under Article 434 of the Iraqi penal code, he could face up to one year in prison, Hassan said, adding that no court date has been set for his case.

“Iraqi Kurdish authorities must immediately drop all criminal charges against journalist Ayub Ali Warty and cease harassing members of the press for their work,” said CPJ senior researcher Yeganeh Rezaian. “Criminal defamation statutes have no place in an open society, and Iraqi authorities should reform the country’s laws as soon as possible.”

KNN TV, or the Kurdish News Network, is a Kurdistan-based television and online news agency closely affiliated with Kurdistan’s opposition Change (Gorran) Movement party, as CPJ has documented.

Hassan told CPJ that Warty’s detention stemmed from a defamation complaint filed by a local plastic surgeon after the journalist used a YouTube video by that doctor to illustrate his reporting on alleged sexual assaults committed by unrelated doctors. CPJ was unable to find contact information for the surgeon who filed the complaint.

Hassan said that such defamation complaints were “normal and legal,” but that authorities should have accepted the complaint under the country’s Journalistic Law, which allows for defamation cases to be adjudicated without members of the press facing arrest.

Hassan also told CPJ that “we, a team of lawyers, will request the court to change the case into journalism law, otherwise, we will appeal the court’s decision.”

When CPJ called Erbil police spokesperson Hogr Aziz, he refused to comment on the record.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

CPJ is honored to present its 2022 International Press Freedom Award to Iraqi Kurdish journalist Niyaz Abdullah.

Niyaz Abdullah is a prominent Iraqi Kurdish freelance journalist. She regularly contributes to media outlets in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, including Radio Nawa, the broadcaster NRT, and the news websites Westga, Zhyan News Network, Hawlati, and Skurd, among others. 

Abdullah has covered politics, civil unrest, government corruption, human rights, and ethnic and religious minorities in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2021, she covered the cases of Iraqi Kurdish journalists and civil society activists convicted on national security charges with flimsy evidence. 

Abdullah faced legal harassment by security forces and local authorities for criticizing Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s crackdown on press freedom and freedom of expression, and she was detained and threatened with violence over her work. In 2021, she fled to France to escape threats against her. 

Honoring Abdullah with this year’s IPFA offers a powerful recognition of her essential contributions to the coverage of Iraqi Kurdistan and her unfailing commitment to the ideals of a free and democratic society in the face of grave personal risk.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The strike hit the Erbil-Pirmam road around 9:35 p.m., leaving three people slightly injured and damaging a restaurant and a number of vehicles, the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism said in a statement.

Nabaz Rashad, a reporter for the independent TV news website Westga News, told CPJ that, “minutes after the strike, I arrived at the scene even before the security forces and started going live on our Facebook page via my mobile phone.” While live streaming, he said, “security forces came and hit me with their fists, breaking my mobile phone and receiver. I kept telling them that I am a journalist and have my press ID, but useless!”

“They took me and locked me up inside their military vehicle for an hour, abusing and threatening me,” Rashad added.

When he went to the main Asayish headquarters at Erbil a couple of hours later, Rashad was forced to sign a pledge stating, “I am responsible if any photos and videos go viral,” in order to get his broken mobile phone and receiver back, he said.

Jihad Waisi, a correspondent for the NRT TV, a news broadcaster funded by the opposition New Generation Movement, told CPJ that the security forces intercepted and stopped all the media outlets and forced them to leave the scene, with no exceptions.

“We were a team of three, covering it from a distance, but the security forces came and took all the equipment and our personal mobile phones, asking us to leave the place immediately,” said Waisi, adding that they got back the equipment and mobile phones, except for the camera’s memory card.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Metro Center for Journalist Rights and Advocacy, an Iraqi press freedom organization, urged the security forces “to let the journalists work and cover the scene freely without any obstacles.”

“The attack on Westga News reporter Nabaz Rashad, confiscation of journalistic equipment, and blocking media outlets would not strengthen the security plan nor hide the realities,” Metro Center said.

When CPJ reached out to two journalists from other media organizations who were also prevented from covering the incident that night, they confirmed the information but refused to comment further due to concerns about reprisal from their outlets, which are affiliated with the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party.

CPJ reached out to Erbil Asayish spokesperson Ashti Majeed via email and messaging app for comment, but did not receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

The Kurdistan TV crew—correspondent Halo Jabari and cameraman Ako Banayi—had traveled to Zanqa village to cover the aftermath of the burning of farmers’ crops and grains by alleged Islamic State militants there, the crew said.

Jabari told CPJ that “six military vehicles full of the federal police forces came and told us that we did not have permission to visit the area without a support letter from Kirkuk joint operations command.”

“We had our press ID. We told them that we are a registered media outlet all over Iraq and we can go and cover any area we want, but they prevented us from covering and asked us to go with them,” Jabari said.

Jabari said the federal police “took us to their headquarters in Daquq for interrogation. They were very furious and told us that this area is a military zone, that means no media could go there without permission.”

Banayi told CPJ that “we told them that we entered the area through their [the federal police] formal checkpoint. And the village is full of people, but they insisted that we should leave there.”

“They asked me to remove all the footage I took with my camera, but luckily, while they took us to their headquarters, I changed the memory and hid the used memory card to save the footage,” Banayi said.

After more than an hour, the federal police released the crew and warned them not to return to the area or report that the crops and grains were burnt by Islamic State militants, the crew said.

CPJ called Iraq’s Federal Police Command and left a message, but did not receive an immediate response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

The PKK, a militant group and political party active in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, Turkey, and other countries.

The Kurdistan 24 crew—correspondent Diyar Jamal, cameraman Karwan Yara, and driver Soran Hakim—was attacked in front of the province’s forensic medicine department in Sulaymaniyah those sources said. The crew was covering the delivery of the body of the murder victim, Zaki Chalabi, by his friends and relatives.

On May 17, two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle had fired at a restaurant Chalabi owned in the Bakhtiyari neighborhood of Sulaymaniyah, hitting him, Iraqi-Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported. Chalabi was reported dead the next day after undergoing two surgeries.

Esta media, a news website affiliated with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which governs Sulaymaniyah province, reported on its Facebook page that the journalists were severely beaten by PKK supporters.

Jamal told CPJ via phone that “there were about 20 to 30 supporters” of the PKK, and that they “tried to force us to report that Turkey was involved in the killing of the restaurant owner, even though the investigation hasn’t yet been concluded. So we refused to do so.”

“They abused and chanted slogans against us, they accused us of working in favor of MIT,” which is Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, Jamal said, adding, “Right away, they attacked and beat us badly. Our clothes were all torn.”

The three journalists ran off in different directions, leaving their equipment behind, except the camera, Jamal said, adding, “They looted the voice receiver and the car keys, our mic was later found destroyed, our cameraman could run with his camera.”

Jamal said the security forces and other journalists intervened. “The security forces fired bullets into the air to disperse the assailants and rescued us,” he said.

Hakim told CPJ that, “despite of security forces’ attempt to protect me, they took me three times and beat me very badly. Even when I ran to take a taxi, they get me out of the taxi and beat me again.” His body is “full of bruises and cuts,” he said.

Yara told CPJ that he escaped via taxi, without sustaining any series injuries. “Many people gathered around us and assaulted us,” he said. “I hugged my camera and live streaming device and ran to the security forces and asked for protection.”

In a joint press conference on May 18, Metro Center for Journalist Rights and Advocacy and the Sulaymaniyah branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, condemned the attack. The two regional press freedom groups stressed that “no one should interfere in the journalists’ work or tell them how to report the event while conducting their media coverage.”

In a statement issued following the attack, Kurdistan 24 described the attack as “an infringement on the freedom of the press.”

“We would like to make it clear to everyone that Kurdistan 24 has always professionally covered events, and it will never stop its professional work in telling the truth through its media coverage,” said the broadcaster, which is supportive of Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party.

CPJ reached out to Sarkawt Ahmed, the spokesperson of Sulaymaniyah police, via phone and left a message, but did not receive an immediate response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

The investigation, “The Assassination of Sardasht Osman: Debunking the Official Story”, is the fifth in a series of investigations to push for local justice as part of the A Safer World for the Truth initiative, a project by leading press freedom organisations Free Press Unlimited, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The group’s analysis of the “official investigation” revealed significant gaps and irregularities, including a failure to interview family members and friends. Instead they were threatened to remain silent and support the official storyline.

Iraq currently ranks 172nd out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index. All the killers of murdered journalists in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have operated with impunity, according to CPJ’s 2021 Global Impunity Index where Iraq is ranked third.

The murdered journalist, Sardasht Osman, worked in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and wrote about corruption and nepotism. In December 2009, he wrote a satirical article, ‘I am in love with Barzani’s daughter’, in which he juxtaposed the luxurious lifestyle of President Massoud Barzani’s family with the hardships of average Kurdish citizens. Shortly after, he started receiving death threats.

Inconsistencies in the official storyline are most pronounced with regards to: the kidnapping of Sardasht, transporting Sardasht (or his body) from Erbil to Mosul, the official autopsy report, the allegation that the perpetrators were from the Ansar al-Islam terrorist group, and the alleged motive for his assassination, the A Safer World For The Truth investigation found.

“There are always people who don’t want to listen when you start telling the truth, who get furious at the slightest whisper. To stay alive though, we must tell the truth.

I will continue to write until the last minute of my life.”

-Sardasht’s personal response to threats prior to his assassination.

The case of Sardasht is illustrative of the fate of many young, critical journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan, including: Asos Hardi, Kawa Garmyani, Wedad Hussein and Soran Mama Hama. Since Sarshadt’s murder, at least 22 journalists have been killed in Iraq in connection to their work, eight of whom were killed in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Furthermore, journalists like Sardasht who work in places with limited press freedom are often forced to self-censor to avoid crossing certain red lines that can trigger violence by authorities. Threats and attacks against these journalists are rarely investigated promptly, effectively and thoroughly..

In light of these findings, A Safer World for the Truth has published a series of concrete recommendations to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and to the international community:

First, Kurdish authorities must immediately end all harassment, intimidation, and threats against Sardasht’s family members and friends and initiate a transparent and impartial reinvestigation of the case of Sardasht Osman.

Second, advocates, particularly those with diplomatic and economic relations to the KRG, should exert continuous pressure on Kurdish authorities to investigate threats against and murders of journalists according to international standards.

Third, States should impose targeted sanctions on KRG officials and authorities for preventing prompt, effective, thorough, impartial and transparent investigations into crimes against journalists.

Finally, supporters of press freedom should join us in calling on the Kurdish authorities to develop a formal independent safety mechanism tasked with monitoring and acting on threats and attacks against journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan. By providing journalists and media workers with effective protective and preventive measures, we can begin to break the cycle of impunity.

Jules Swinkels, Lead Researcher for this investigation, Free Press Unlimited (FPU), states:

“The case of Sardasht is emblematic of what can happen when journalists push the boundaries of their confined freedom of expression. Sardasht wrote satirically about Kurdistan’s most powerful individuals, and was kidnapped and assassinated because of it. Tragically, his case demonstrates that a complete lack of political will to investigate and solve murders of journalists domestically, is one of the main reasons for impunity. The recommendations in this report provide a pathway to let justice prevail in cases of murdered journalists.”

Yeganeh Rezaian, Senior Researcher, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), states:

“Reporters must be able to speak truth to power, uncover corruption, hold the powerful to account, and yes, satirize public figures without fear of intimidation, violence, and death. And when authorities pursue an agenda of persecution against journalists and tolerate impunity for their assailants, it is imperative they not be allowed to evade justice and prolong a campaign of violent censorship. This report offers a clear roadmap for how to address the case of Sardasht and ensure greater transparency and accountability for cases in the future.”

Sabrina Bennoui, Middle East Director, Reporters without Borders (RSF), states:

“Twelve years after the assassination of Sardasht Osman, the authorities still stick to their official version – which the journalist’s entourage has never believed in, regarding his writings critical of the government. The investigation was as opaque as it was expeditious and it is clear that it did not reveal the truth about the perpetrators and their real motives.”

Previous investigations and recommendations can be found here.

The full investigation, in English, Kurdish, and Arabic, can be downloaded here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Ahmed Zidan.

Protesters gathered at the U.N. building to demonstrate against Turkish military operations in the region, those reports said.

As Asayish officers dispersed the protest, a group of three officers approached Ferman Sadeq, a reporter with the local independent broadcaster Peregraf Web-TV, confiscated his cellphone and microphone, and forced him to stop broadcasting, according to those reports and Sadeq, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Sadeq, who said he was clearly wearing his press ID, told CPJ that he feared the officers would beat him, but said protesters intervened and protected him. After the protest, Asayish officers returned his phone and microphone, he said.

Also at that protest, Asayish officers seized equipment and a vehicle used by reporter Dyar Hussen and camera operator Hangaw Nino with the Esta Media Network, a broadcaster affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, preventing them from covering the demonstration, according to those news reports and Hussen, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Authorities later returned the journalists’ car and equipment, according to those sources.

CPJ contacted Erbil Asayish spokesperson Ashti Majeed for comment via messaging app, but did not receive any response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Baroshky was released in February after  being convicted on charges that included prosecution under the Law on Misuse of Communication Devices, known as Law 6, which lawmakers billed as a way to counter online harassment but has been used by government officials to persecute independent reporters.

Authorities first arrested Baroshky in August 2020, then briefly released and rearrested him in September of that year. In June 2021, a court in the city of Duhok sentenced him to one year in jail under Law 6, as CPJ documented. In September 2021, a court in Erbil, the region’s capital, extended his sentence by one year after convicting him on two additional charges under the same law.

In a recent phone interview, Baroshky described the charges he faced, his experience in detention, and the state of press freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In an email to CPJ in September 2021, Dindar Zebari, the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government’s coordinator for international advocacy, said Baroshky’s conviction was not related to his journalistic work.

Viyan Abbas, the Duhok branch secretary of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, a regional journalists’ union, told CPJ via phone in April 2022 that the syndicate provided Baroshky with a lawyer to assist with his defense on the charges under Law 6, because it is “our duty to defend all journalistic cases.”

You say you were detained by police and assaulted by security forces in connection with your work. Yet Iraqi Kurdish authorities told CPJ that you were not arrested because of your journalism. What is your response to that?

It was clear throughout the investigation that I was arrested and imprisoned due to my journalism work; all the inquiries and questions were referring to it.

I had seven court hearings in Duhok before I was transferred to the regional capital, Erbil. At all the hearings, I was charged and treated as a journalist, but they didn’t charge me under the journalism law because the case was politicized. [I was convicted under] Article 2 of Law Number 6 of 2008, relating to the misuse of communication devices, and accused of acts of sabotage and spying for neighboring countries, which were all fake. The journalists’ union was present at almost all hearings and defended me as a journalist.

During the investigations, there were no clear charges, and it didn’t go through a legal process. For example, I was asked about the posts I had on my social media accounts, my TV interviews about the situation in Duhok, and the articles and reports I was conducting as a freelance journalist.

Do you believe you got a fair court hearing?

Definitely not, the court hearings weren’t fair at all. First, I believe that my arrest is a clear violation to the press and the law itself. I had IDs from both the press syndicate and the outlets I was working for, I shouldn’t have been arrested at all.

People should ask why the court hearings were postponed so many times. It was all because the Kurdish authorities asked the judges forcefully to find us guilty of crimes we were not involved in, but many of them refused to do so because they didn’t want to punish innocent people. That is why [the judges] were threatened andwere moved to the city’s surrounding courts or a remote area.

The nonprofit group Christian Peacemaker Teams published a statement saying you were beaten by 20 people after your arrest. How were you treated in prison?

When I was arrested together with Badal Barwari on August 18, 2020, we were detained at Zirka Prison in Duhok–which belonged to the police–until October 2, 2020, on journalistic charges. The last day, I was moved to Duhok Asayish (security forces) headquarters. I was beaten and abused with kicks and batons by more than 20 people who came from Erbil; I was also blindfolded and handcuffed.

After that, I was transferred to Erbil, although I didn’t know that it was Erbil because I was blindfolded. They put me in solitary confinement and I stayed there for 52 days. None of my family or friends were aware of the place I was detained, or even if I was alive or dead.

The Asayish forces in Erbil videoed us and asked me if I was hit, and I answered, “yes, you did.” But they stopped the recording and asked me once again and said, “I am not talking about Duhok, I am talking about Erbil headquarters.” Then I said “no.”

[Editor’s note: Ashti Majeed, the spokesperson for the Erbil Asaiysh forces, in an email to CPJ in April 2022 denied that Baroshky had been beaten or subjected to insults during his detention in Erbil, adding that “our administration is committed to the legal procedures and principles of human rights in dealing with the detainees.”]

What do you think about Article 2 of Law Number 6 of 2008, relating to the misuse of communication devices, under which you were charged?

The law itself is somewhat necessary to limit and control the social problems and violations using mobile phones and social media platforms that harm people, especially the harassment of girls and women. But the problem is when the authorities are misusing this law to punish the journalists who are conducting reports against them and those who are speaking in opposition to them.

The authorities are trying to punish the activists and journalists with non-political laws just to tell the international community that the prisons are empty of political prisoners.

Journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan believed that the region was becoming more media friendly, but we have documented multiple journalist arrests in recent years. How do you see the future of media freedom in your area, Duhok?

Those who claim that Iraqi Kurdistan is becoming more media friendly are working and backed by the authorities here. But if a neutral organization, like CPJ, came and conducted research, it would be clear that journalists are killed, arrested, abducted, and threatened due to their journalistic work. I can truthfully say that freedom of media and freedom of expression in Iraqi Kurdistan are an illusion.

After the 2018 parliamentary elections in Iraqi Kurdistan and especially after new Erbil and Duhok governors were installed, the situation became worse for journalists and freedom fighters. They are trying to silence anyone who raises his or her voice.

I don’t see a brighter future for freedom of media and freedom of expression. I have recently visited six media outlets that covered and supported my case to thank them, they told me that the situation became worse, they can’t work freely, and are even afraid of reporting about the lack of public services. They told me that they expect security forces to storm them and arrest them in any time.

Do you think that your imprisonment had an impact on other journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan?

At the beginning, it impacted other journalists negatively. They were scared, especially when Prime Minister Masrour Barzani alleged that the detained journalists were “spies.” But when internal and international organizations spoke up about our cases, and let people know that we were innocent and the cases were politicized…it encouraged other journalists to…speak loudly and report bravely.

What does the world need to know about press freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan?

Journalists from the Badinan area, in Duhok province, are in desperate need of international support to work freely. The authorities are trying to suffocate every voice demanding freedom of media and freedom of expression. We should end the 30 years of injustice against free media and free expression in the Badinan area.

Additional reporting by Soran Rashid.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Yeganeh Rezaian.