Iraq’s Kurdistan Imprisons Two More Journalists For Covering Protests

Journalist Qaraman Shukri was given 7 years in prison by a secret trial in the KRG for covering protests (Committee to Protect Journalists)

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) imprisoned two more journalists. On June 22 Omed Baroshki was convicted on three charges in Dohuk and received 12 months in prison and a fine. He was convicted of violating the Communication Devices Misuse Law and for disobeying public officials. A few days later Qaraman Shukri was found guilty and given 7 years in a secret trial. Both were detained by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) security in Dohuk for covering protests. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned both actions by the KDP.

Government Crackdown Shuts Down Many Protests In Iraq

The Iraqi government crackdown on the country’s demonstrations was in its second day. It had a noticeable affect as there were fewer protests, and public accusations against the activists grew in the media.

BBG VIDEO: Contemporary Media Use In Iraq

Where Do Iraqis Get Their Information And News From?

In 2009 D3 Systems contracted a Turkish company to survey Iraqis on what were their main sources of information. The results showed that the vast majority of Iraqis watched television more than any other media source, but that the Internet was growing in importance. While the individual stations and papers people read today might be slightly different four years later, the general findings still likely hold true. The most important of which was that Iraqis were widely skeptical of what they heard, read, and saw from their media, both foreign and domestic.

In November 2009, the Turkish company KA Research Limited was contracted by D3 Systems to survey Iraqis about their media habits. The study included 2,200 people across all 18 of Iraq’s provinces with a +/- ratio of 2%. KA asked 132 questions total. The firm had been in Iraq for seven years, operated 28 offices across the nation, and had been doing interviews with Iraqis since 2003. The report broke the country up into three regions. The north consisted of Dohuk, Irbil, Sulaymaniya, and Tamim. The central area was made up of Ninewa, Salahaddin, Diyala, Baghdad, and Anbar, while the south was Karbala, Babil, Wasit, Qadisiyah, Najaf, Maysan, Dhi Qar, Muthanna, and Basra. 2009 was a perfect time to ask Iraqis questions as the civil war had just ended, and the public was able to return to their normal lives.

Television is by far the most popular form of media in Iraq

The first questions involved what types of media did people use the most. 100% of respondents watched TV. That was followed by 24% listening to the radio, 3% reading newspapers, and 3% using the Internet. Amongst television viewers 72% watched Iraqi satellite TV, 46% watched international Arabic satellite TV, 32% viewed local television using an antenna, 17% liked foreign satellite TV that wasn’t in Arabic, and 7% subscribed to cable TV. With radio listeners, 24% favored Iraqi radio stations compared to 17% foreign. Television was obviously the most popular form of media used with an average number of 16 million people using it each day. That compared to seven million who used the Internet or listened to the radio, with the newspapers in last place with five million. Iraqis also watched TV the longest more than anything else. When asked what type of media they spent 45 minutes with each day, television came in first at 58%, an average of 9.3 million people, Internet was second at 69%, 4.9 million, followed by the radio 10%, 700,000 people, and newspapers at 5%, 300,000 Iraqis. When broken down by region, TV was most popular in the north. They also listened to the radio more than used the Internet, but they surfed the web longer when online. In central and southern Iraq, after TV, people spent the most time on the Internet. All this showed the dominance of television over all other forms of media. Usage was changing however with the Internet becoming more and more popular. With the civil war over, access to the Internet probably increased as it was easier to install in people’s homes now that they did not have to worry about violence as much.

Most Popular Media Sources, Nov. 2009

	Overall	North	Central	South
Iraq TV	100%	100%	100%	100%
Iraq Satellite TV	72%	91%	63%	71%
International Satellite TV (Arabic)	46%	25%	40%	69%
Aerial TV	32%	73%	11%	32%
Subscription Cable TV	7%	0%	3%	17%
Foreign Satellite TV (not Arabic)	17%	11%	5%	37%
Iraq Newspaper	3%	7%	1%	3%
Iraq Radio	24%	39%	11%	34%
Foreign Radio	17%	13%	10%	29%
Internet	3%	5%	2%	4%
Blogs	1%	2%	0%	2%
Mobile Phone	1%	0%	1%	0%

Avg. number of Iraqis using each media source per day nationally, Nov. 09

TV 16 mil

Internet 7 mil

Radio 7 mil

Newspaper 5 mil

% of population that spent at least 45 min. with each media type nationally per day, Nov. 2009

TV 58%

Internet 69%

Radio 10%

Newspapers 5%

Avg. number of people using each media source per day in northern Iraq, Nov. 09

TV 4 mil

Radio 2 mil

Internet 1 mil

Newspaper 1 mil

% of population that spent at least 45 min. with each media type northern Iraq per day, Nov. 09

TV 65%

Internet 22%

Radio 7%

Newspaper 5%

Avg. number of people using each media source per day in central Iraq, Nov. 09

TV 7 mil

Internet 4 mil

Radio 2 mil

Newspaper 2 mil

% of population that spent at least 45 min. with each media type central Iraq per day, Nov. 09

TV 57%

Internet 18%

Radio 9%

Newspaper 0%

Avg. number of people using each media source per day in southern Iraq, Nov. 09

TV 6 mil

Radio 3 mil

Internet 2 mil

Newspaper 2 mil

% of population that spent at least 45 min. with each media type central Iraq per day, Nov. 09

TV 52%

Internet 27%

Radio 12%

Newspaper 11%

Depending upon which region people lived in they watched different television stations. When asked to name all the TV stations that they watched Al Sharqia was the most popular at 82%, followed by Al Arabiya 74%, and Al Sumaria 72%. In the north, Kurdish networks were obviously the most popular with Kurdistan TV at 94%,  and Gali Kurdistan and Zagros TV 93% each. In the central Iraq, the MBC network came in first 82% and third 68%, with Al Sharqiya in second at 81%. Finally, in the south Al Sharqiya was first, 95%, Al Arabiya was second, 91%, and Al Sumaria TV was third, 90%. When asked which of these sources did they trust the most, few thought much of any of them. Nationally, Al Sharqia was trusted the most, but that was only at 33%. In the north, stations fared a little better with Kurdistan TV at 50%, KNN TV at 41%, and KurdSAT at 37%, but all the rest were below 25%. Al Sharqia for example, was at only 11%. In the north, it did better at 42%, but the rest were below 25%, while in the south Al Iraqiya fared the best at 44%. Today, the individual stations that were watched might have changed, but an important point was revealed. The reason why people watched so many different stations might be because they didn’t trust them, and therefore sought as many different sources of information as possible. If true, that would be a very good trait of the country, and was perhaps the result of coming out of a dictatorship where everything was controlled by the state. That might have created a healthy skepticism of all media.

Top 10 television stations that Iraqis watched nationally, Nov. 09

Al Sharqia 82%

Al Arabiya 74%

Al Sumaria 72%

Al Hurra 71%

MBC 1 71%

Al Iraqiya 67%

Al Baghdadia 66%

MBC 2 58%

MBC Action 55%

Abu Dhabi TV 55%

Top 10 television stations that Iraqis watched in northern Iraq, Nov. 09

Kurdistan TV 94%

Gali Kurdistan 93%

Zagros TV 93%

KurdSAT 93%

Newroz TV 89%

Vin TV 81%

Al Jazeera 78%

MBC 1 78%

Al Hurra 73%

MBC 2 73%

Top 10 television stations that Iraqis watched in central Iraq, Nov. 09

MBC 1 82%

Al Sharqiya TV 81%

MBC 2 68%

Al Arabiya 66%

Melody TV 65%

MBC Action 63%

Al Sumaria TV 61%

Al Baghdadia 60%

Al Hurra 58%

MBC 4 58%

Top 10 television stations that Iraqis watched in southern Iraq, Nov. 09

Al Sharqiya TV 95%

Al Arabiya 91%

Al Sumaria TV 90%

Al Hurra 88%

Al Iraqiya 88%

Al Baghdadia 85%

Al Forat 68%

MBC 1 52%

Al Anwar TV 46%

Abu Dhabi TV 44%

Top 10 most trusted television news channels nationally in Iraq, Nov. 09

Al Sharqia 33%

Al Iraqiya 21%

Al Hurra 20%

Al Arabia 19%

Al Baghdadia 19%

Kurdistan TV 14%

Al Sumaria 13%

Al Jazeera 11%

KurdSAT 11%

BBC Arabic 10%

Top 10 most trusted television news channels in northern Iraq, Nov. 09

Kurdistan TV 50%

KNN TV 41%

KurdSAT 37%

Khak TV 23%

Zagros TV 22%

Gali Kurdistan 19%

Al Jazeera 13%

Al Sharqia 11%

Al Arabia 8%

Al Baghdadia 5%

Top 10 most trusted television news channels in central Iraq, Nov. 09

Al Sharqia 42%

Al Baghdadia 21%

Al Arabia 20%

Al Hurra 16%

Al Iraqia 15%

Al Jazeera 15%

BBC Arabic 13%

Al Sumaria TV 12%

Babiliyah TV 12%

Salah Al-Din TV 11%

Top 10 most trusted television news channels in southern Iraq, Nov. 09

Al Iraqia 44%

Al Hura 38%

Al Sharqia 37%

Al Baghdadia 27%

Al Arabia 26%

Al Sumaria TV 23%

Al Forat 16%

BBC Arabic 11%

Al Fayhaa TV 6%

Al Jazeera 4%

The next major topic was radio. Nationally, Baghdad Radio, 63%, and Radio Nawa, 61%, were tops. REgionally, Radio Nawa, 99%, was the most popular in the north, Baghdad Radio, 78%, was number one in the center, and in the south, 89%. Just like television, few radio stations received favorable marks about their news coverage. Nationally for example, Radio Sawa was ranked the best, but at only 23% on how it covered major events. Unlike TV however, foreign stations like the BBC fared fairly well in their reporting, but was still at a very low percentage, 13%.

Top 10 radio stations nationally in Iraq, Nov. 09

Baghdad Radio 63%

Radio Nawa 61%

Radio Sawa 54%

BBC London Arabic 49%

Monte Carlo Doualiya 48%

Dijla Radio 42%

Radio Sumer FM 38%

Radio Iraq al-Hurr 37%

Al Iraqiya Radio 34%

Radio Al Huriya 32%

Top 10 radio stations northern Iraq, Nov. 09

Radio Nawa 99%

Kurdistan Voice Radio 96%

Gali Kurdistan Voice Radio 93%

Yekgirtu Radio 68%

Ashti Radio 62%

BBC London Arabic 44%

Khak Radio 42%

Voice of America 42%

Zagros Radio 41%

Radio Sawa 40%

Top 10 radio stations central Iraq, Nov. 09

Baghdad Radio 78%

Radio Sawa 67%

BBC London Arabic 61%

Radio Nawa 59%

Monte Carlo Doualiya 57%

Dijla Radio 54%

Radio Sumer FM 50%

Al Iraqiya Radio 43%

Radio Iraq al-Hurr 42%

Al Nas 38%

Top 10 radio stations southern Iraq, Nov. 09

Baghdad Radio 89%

Dijla Radio 58%

Monte Carlo Doualiya 54%

Radio al-Hurriya 51%

Radio Sawa 50%

Radio Sumer Fm 46%

Radio Iraq al Hurr 43%

Al Mirbad 38%

BBC London Arabic 37%

Which radio stations provided the best news coverage nationally, Nov. 09

Radio Sawa 23%

Radio Nawa 16%

BBC London 13%

Which radio stations provided the best news coverage northern Iraq, Nov. 09

Others 59%

Radio Nawa 19%

Radio Zagros 12%

Radio Sawa 8%

Which radio stations provided the best news coverage central Iraq, Nov. 09

Others 38%

Radio Sawa 18%

BBC London 13%

Radio Nawa 12%

Baghdad Radio 11%

Which radio stations provided the best news coverage southern Iraq, Nov. 09

Radio Sawa 41%

BBC London 22%

Radio Nawa 18%

By 2009, the Internet was increasingly challenging traditional media. Usage was up, and more importantly, 68% said that they preferred using the web rather than newspapers. Iraqis also used search engines like Yahoo, 88%, and Google, 67%, rather than going to individual news sites such as Al Jazeera, 34%, or Al Arabiya 33%. That showed that newspapers were a dying form of information in Iraq just as they are in the industrial world. It was another indicator that Iraqis had trust issues with their own domestic media as well, which was why they surfed the net over using domestic news sites.

Top 10 most trusted websites for news in Iraq, Nov. 09

Yahoo 88%

Google 67%

Al Jazeera 34%

Al Arabiya 33%

BBC Arabic 32%

Aswat al Iraq 24%

Maktoob 23%

PUK Media 21%

Iraq 4 All 20%

Elaph 20%

Newspapers were barely read anymore in the country by 2009. Only 3% said they read one each day. Weekly that went up to 25%, but more importantly, 59% of respondents said they never looked at a paper. Of those that still had a readership, Al Sabah was number one at 49%, followed by Azzaman, 42%, and Lvin Magazine from Kurdistan at 35%. Again, television, and even the Internet had far exceeded the use of newspapers in the country by 2009. Going on line was hopefully saving some of these papers as it opened a new avenue to maintain readership since so many were moving to the web.

How often did Iraqis read newspapers, Nov. 09

Daily or almost every day 3%

Several times/once a week 25%

Less than once a week 14%

Never 59%

Top 10 newspapers nationally, Nov. 09

Al Sabah 49%

Azzaman 42%

Lvin Magazine 35%

Hawlati 34%

Al Sabah 33%

Awene 32%

Others 30%

Al Dustour 27%

Al Hayat 19%

Al Shariq Al Awsat 19%

Overall, 75% of Iraqis included in the survey said it was important to be informed about the news. A basic necessity of a democratic society is a knowledgeable public. The fact that people were looking at a multitude of sources, and had a strong skepticism of almost all of them was important for the development of a civil society that can support elections and voting. It might also be a result of having once been under Saddam Hussein that Iraqis are so interested in the news. These are both positive findings. Unfortunately, other factors such as sectarianism and patronage also play a large role in shaping how all this news is digested. While not included in the survey, it was likely just as important for which stations or newspapers were viewed.

SOURCE

D3 Systems, “Iraq Media Study National Audience Analysis,” 4/21/10

Stories Of Human Rights Abuses In Iraq From Amnesty International and the State Department’s Annual Reports

Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department recently released their annual reports on human rights around the world. As usual, Iraq fared badly. Neither organization found any improvements in the situation within the country. The common charges of mass arrests, arbitrary detentions, holding suspects without charges and access to lawyers, torture and abuse of prisoners, holding people that should be released, corruption, intimidation and harassment of the media, and limiting freedom of speech and assembly were all heard. These abuses occurred at the hands of both the central and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The reason why this situation persists is because there is no due process, and more importantly no accountability within the government to stop and reform any of these practices. Even when parts of the government itself find cases of abuse nothing substantive is done about it. Investigations are always announced for example, but they never lead to anything. Since these types of report have become the norm for Iraq, there is nothing different between this year’s and the last few. What Amnesty and the State Department can provide is specific stories that can humanize the poor state of human rights within the country.

Iraq suffers from weak rule of law. Suspects are supposed to have a number of rights until they are found guilty, but that rarely happens. Two of the most common examples of how the government ignores these protections are the use of torture, and the public airing of confessions before detainees go to trial in terrorism cases. What happened to Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi is a high-profile example. In December 2011, several of the vice president’s bodyguards were arrested, and then shown on state-run TV confessing to carrying out assassinations for Hashemi. That resulted in several death sentences for him the next year. Hashemi and others later claimed that his guards were tortured, and forced to confess. One member of his security detail, Amir Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi died in custody three months after his arrest. When his family received his body in March 2012, they said that it showed signs of abuse and torture. The government denied those charges, and said that he passed away because of kidney failure. More routine cases were like those of Nabhan Adel Hamid, Muad Mohammed Abed, Amer Ahmed Kassar, and Shakir Mohammed Anad who were arrested in Ramadi and Fallujah in March and April 2012. They were held incommunicado for several weeks, and allegedly tortured. Afterward their confessions were aired on local television. When they went to trial they told the court that those confessions were forced out of them due to abuse. The testimony of other detainees supported their claims, and a medical examination of one defendant found burn marks and other wounds consistent with torture. Despite that all four were sentenced to death in December. Under the constitution torture is outlawed. However, since the Iraqi criminal justice system is based upon confessions the most common way to obtain one is to beat it out of people. This is especially true for terrorism cases where the stakes are much higher. The use of televised confessions also undermines the justice system, since there’s no way a defendant can receive a fair trial if they have said they are guilty in public beforehand. Again, since terrorism is such a pressing concern, the government feels it necessary to continuously air these suspects before the public to make it look like its security measures are working.

Sometimes these harsh techniques lead to deaths either unintentionally or not. Samir Naji Awda al-Bilawi, a pharmacist, and his 13-year old son Mundhir were picked up at a checkpoint in Ramadi. Three days later the family found out that the father had died in custody. Images released to the media showed that he had injuries to his head and hands. The son later said that they had been beaten in a police station, and tortured including the use of electric shock. In September 2012, Yasin Chafadschi from Qayara, Ninewa was arrested, tortured, and died as a result. The press received pictures of the man with bruises, his eyes swollen shut, dried blood on his face, and his fingernails missing. The police denied they had done anything to him, and claimed that insurgents had kidnapped and killed him. Ninewa Governor Atheel Nujafi ordered an investigation into the matter, but nothing came of it. Again, these cases are common place in Iraq. Since so many prisoners are tortured it is inevitable that some of them die in custody. Even if there are inquiries like the one involving Chafadschi nothing ever comes of them. Again, because there is no political will to change the system, these abuses continue, and the security forces operate with impunity with no fear that their violations of people’s rights will ever be punished.

The number of people being picked up by the government, and facing these conditions is increasing, because of the tactics currently used by the security forces. The Iraqi army and police no longer carry out counterinsurgency operations like they did with the Americans. Instead, they are acting like the U.S. military did from 2003-2006 with similar results. The most common tactic is mass arrests during security sweeps. Human Rights Watch for example, reported that Federal Police raided eleven homes in Taji, Salahaddin on November 3, 2012, and arrested 41 people, including 29 children. 12 women and girls aged 11 to 60 were held for four days without charges at the headquarters of the police unit. They were all beat and tortured including electrocuting them, and suffocating them with plastic bags. Again, the main way information was extracted from prisoners was by force. This case was especially disturbing, because it did not involve terrorism suspects, but suspected family members, including children who were treated like their adult family members. Even if any intelligence were gained from this action the resulting backlash amongst the community would mean that the government could not rely upon these people to support their security operations. Instead, they would look at the Federal Police as a threatening force. That could lead to at least tacit support for any insurgents in the area, if not open backing.

These acts take place in Iraq’s many detention facilities, but there are also a number of secret ones run by the central and regional governments. In 2010, the media found out about one of these operating in the Green Zone run by security forces under the control of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that held more than 400 Sunni prisoners. Over 100 of them showed signs of torture. In March 2011, the government claimed that it had closed the place. In May 2012 however, Human Rights Watch reported that it was still in use as late as March 2012. By the end of that year there were still details emerging that it was in operation. Secret prisons quickly popped up across Iraq when the Iraqi security forces were put back together. The U.S. knew about many of these facilities, but did nothing, because the policy was that this was an Iraqi affair, and they needed to deal with it. Today, there is no reason to believe that Baghdad or the Kurdistan Regional Government will stop using these types of prisons to hide those they do not want the judicial system to know about.

Iraq also lacks due process. The Iraqi constitution states that prisoners have to see an investigative judge within 24 hours of their arrest, and that can only be extended for one day. In practice, most are usually held for 72 hours with some exceptions. Cases involving the death penalty, which are mostly about terrorism can lead to indefinite detentions. Prisoners are also supposed to be told their charges, and have access to their lawyers before they go to trial. That rarely happens. The norm is that people are often picked up with not knowing why, and some can be held for days to months to years without seeing a judge, lawyer or court. In December 2011, the army arrested three lawyers without warrants for attempting to represent their clients who were charged with terrorism. That led to a sit in by their peers, resulting in two being released the day they were picked up. The third however, was held for three months, and was only released after the Supreme Criminal Court ordered it. Afterward, all three claimed that they were tortured. In March 2012, during a routine visit to Kirkuk prison one detainee told inspectors that he had been held for 4 ½ years under terrorism charges without ever going to trial. That was obviously an extreme example, but shows just how little respect the security forces, and the various ministries and offices that run detention facilities have for the law. The Iraqi system is obviously overwhelmed by cases since it is dealing with an insurgency, but there appears to be little effort made to follow the constitution or the rules for how an investigation is to be conducted.

The final piece of this process is the judiciary, which is supposed to be independent, but in practice comes under the influence of many. Certain laws, the history of dictatorship, the security situation, and dependence upon other parts of the government all contribute to make the courts weak. Threats, tribal groups, insurgents, and gangs often impede the work of judges on top of that. On June 20, 2012, a judge from the Ninewa Criminal Court was shot down while driving through Mosul. On July 22, Al Qaeda in Iraq announced a campaign specifically against the judiciary. In total, eight judges were killed, and there were another ten attempts last year. Given this pressure there are many cases that simply get dropped, because judges are afraid that they will lose their lives. That’s also a reason why the judiciary often overlooks abuses that happen to detainees before they appear before them, because they know that the governing elite wants action taken against suspected insurgents and criminals. They will therefore ignore torture and forced confessions, and give out guilty sentences even though that is against the constitution, which outlaws abuse.

Iraq has a large number of media outlets, but their freedom to do their work is limited by the security and political situation. There are laws that protect the integrity of the press, but they often say “in accordance with existing law.” That means restrictive articles from the Baathist period still apply. The 1968 Publications Law allows imprisonment for seven years for insulting the government for instance. The media has said that politicians, government officials, security services, tribes, and businessmen all pressure them not to publish certain stories, and that they fear reprisals from the insurgency. That leads to a large amount of self-censorship. Reporters and media outlets also face direct targeting and intimidation. The Iraqi Journalists Rights Defense Association recorded 50 cases of harassment against 75 reporters in 2012. That same year, the Metro Center document 132 cases in Kurdistan, which included 5 death threats, 50 arrests, 21 beatings, and several lawsuits. Almost all of those incidents involved the independent and opposition media in the region. In November 2011, Karzan Karim, a former Asayesh officer and columnist for the Kurdistan Post was arrested after he wrote several articles about corruption at the Irbil International Airport. He was officially accused of revealing secrets about his time with Kurdish security, put on trial for terrorism, and sentenced to two years in prison in October 2012. His family claimed that he was beaten and tortured, and later received threats from the authorities after they publicly criticized his detention, and being held without trial for 11 months. On March 14, 2012, security forces held a TV crew from Russia Today for three hours when they tried to report about attacks upon emos and gays in Baghdad. The team had a permit, but the authorities took their film anyway. On April 11, Kurdish intelligence officers beat two reporters covering a meeting at a military facility in Zakho, Dohuk. On May 8, Kurdish security forces attacked two journalists covering a protest in front of the Kurdish parliament building, and took their equipment. On June 26, police in Kirkuk arrested a reporter and held him for five hours after he took photos of police beating child beggars in the city. On November 4, security forces beat an al-Sumaria cameraman, and then arrested him for filming a bomb site in Anbar, before releasing him later in the day. On November 18, the body of Samir al-Sheikh Ali, the editor of Al-Jamaheer newspaper was found dead in Baghdad. Ali was a human rights activist who pushed for media freedom. He was found shot three times in the chest. Kurdistan is also known for filing lawsuits against reporters and media outlets that criticize officials. In October, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) politburo member and his bodyguard sued Asos Hardi, the editor of Awene for an article that accused the two of attacking him in August 2011. The editor of Zang magazine and reporters for Bazaw magazine in the KRG received fines for around $858 for publishing articles critical of members of the government. Again, the new Iraq is supposed to protect freedom of the media, but in practice that does not always happen. Old laws are applied, which restrict their operations, and other pieces of legislation are ignored. The security forces have gone after journalists, and in Kurdistan there’s always the threat of being sued and having to pay fines if they write about anyone in the regional government. It’s no wonder that many reporters and their employers sometimes hold back on articles given this environment.

The KRG is also known for limiting freedom of association and for going after its critics. On March 27, Hussein Hama Ali Tawfiq, a businessman was arrested and taken to the Asayesh headquarters in Sulaymania where he was beaten. He was told to testify against others about corruption, but refused. He was later charged with bribery, and held until acquitted in November. There was no investigation into his case. On May 17, the Asayesh detained three Yazidi men in Sinjar, Ninewa for ten days. Their crime was for going to a conference sponsored by the central government. They were never charged, and the Asayesh told them not to go to anymore meetings in Baghdad without official permission from the Kurdish authorities. Kurdistan likes to portray itself as the “other Iraq” meaning that there is supposed to be more stability, security, and freedom than in the rest of the country. The above cases show that there is a limit to what people can do in not only the KRG, but in the disputed territories it lays claim to.

Kidnappings have been a chronic problem in Iraq since 2003. People being abducted is an all too common experience for people, and is usually done for money. On February 4, 2012, the driver, secretary, and brother of a member of parliament were all taken in Samarra, Salahaddin. The kidnappers demanded $1.5 million in ransom. That was never paid, and the brother and secretary were killed, with their bodies dumped five days later. The driver was later found beaten and unconscious. A man from Baghdad and a woman from Diyala were arrested over the matter. On August 23, two Yazidi men were kidnapped in Sinjar, and held for $600,000. On August 30, men dressed as members of the security forces abducted a Turkmen boy from Kirkuk. He was released on September 23 after his family paid for his release. Criminal elements or gangs do most of these, but sometimes the security forces are implicated. In May 30, a Yazidi man was taken in Kurdistan, and later found dead the next month. His family blamed the Asayesh. Organized crime grew tremendously during the 1990s, as the government would often use them to get around sanctions. After the fall of Saddam, these groups had free reign to grow, and expand into kidnapping. Many insurgents and armed groups also used the technique to raise money. Corrupt officials have probably been involved as well. This is a constant threat to the average Iraqi.

The main reason why Iraq has such a poor human rights record is that there is no accountability. During 2012, the Human Rights Ministry sent 500 cases involving torture to the courts. The ministry claimed that led to some arrest warrants being issued, but by the end of the year, nothing had happened with any of them. The same thing occurred in 2011. On October 21, security forces beat and wounded four protesters when a demonstration against the lack of services turned violent. The next day, the governorate council questioned the governor about the incident, and set up a committee to look into the matter, but it led to nothing. The use of beatings, torture, forced confessions, etc. are widely known throughout the country. The fact that the ruling parties have no problem with them is the reason why they persist. Most of Iraq’s leaders either grew up in Iraq under Saddam or were in exile in other authoritarian states like Syria or Iran. Living under those repressive systems means they have no issue with replicating them in the new Iraq.

Iraq is supposed to be a developing democracy, but with widespread abuse within the security forces, and the lack of rule of law that is becoming a precarious enterprise. Until politicians want to get rid of these practices they will continue, and Iraq will never have the basic freedoms necessary for a democratic society. Instead it will be a nation with the trappings of democracy like elected officials and a number of media outlets, but will suffer from torture, no due process, and the violation of people’s basic rights.

SOURCES

Amnesty International, “The State of the World’s Human Rights, Amnesty International Report 2013,” May 2013

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, “United States Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” United States Department of State, 2013

Included In Al Jazeera's Listening Post Report On Iraq's Media

I submitted a short video to this report by Al Jazeera’s Listening Post on the state of Iraq’s media and its coverage of the country’s politics.

Human Rights Watch: Iraq’s Kurdistan Limiting Freedom Of the Press And Speech

Human Rights Watch recently released a report on abuses that occurred in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 2012. It noted that the authorities were carrying out arbitrary arrests and harassing journalists and critics of the government. When officials were interviewed about these cases they said that the charges against the KRG were either made-up or lies perpetrated by the press. One said that the KRG had to work outside of the law to deal with increasing pressure from the public and media. This followed a report by Human Rights Watch that found the same practices happening in the rest of the country. Kurdistan likes to call itself “the other Iraq,” but Human Rights Watch found that it is much like Baghdad when it comes to dealing with dissenters.

Media that have questioned the Kurdish government have faced harassment. There have been arbitrary arrests without warrants, detentions for long periods, and defamation lawsuits filed against them. The authorities issued orders to follow the June 2012 Draft Law to Protect Sanctities, which would make insults against religious and national symbols illegal, even thought it has not bee passed by the regional parliament. A KRG foreign relations official told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the government had to act outside the law, because it was facing new pressures from the public and the press. The fact that many of these people were demanding that the KRG be held accountable didn’t seem to stop it from using extrajudicial methods to silence them. The ruling parties have been in power since the 1990s, and have shown little patience for those that question their rule. The treatment of reporters is a perfect example of that.

Kurdistan Journalists Association’s press conference reporting violations against the press in the first half of 2012 (Shafaq News)

Human Rights Watch documented several specific cases of members of the media and critics being harassed and arrested by the security forces. In April 2012, the editor of Bashour magazine was arrested after published two articles criticizing officials. One piece said that public workers stole 206 million dinars, and another said that the brother of President Massoud Barzani received $2 million in a business deal. The editor was held for three days, released, then picked up again by soldiers, and held for three additional days. He is now facing defamation charges. The director of KNN TV was arrested for broadcasting a piece in June 2012, which interviewed public employees who charged members of the Irbil provincial council of stealing money. The director was later convicted of insulting a council member in October, and charged a $1,300 fine. Anonymous people told him that it he had apologized to the politicians the charges would have been dropped. A lawyer said that he was arrested, and held for six days in Chamchamal in October 2012 after he wrote an article accusing judges of being loyal to the ruling parties. He was told that a judge accused him of defamation, but he was never charged with that crime, and eventually released. That was just a fraction of the 50 cases that were recorded by HRW for 2012. It was supported by Kurdish organization as well that have found similar abuses. The Kurdistan Journalists Association in Irbil for example, reported 43 violations against journalists in the first half of 2012 alone, including 22 attacks upon reporters, seven assaults, four being threatened with death, and two cases of fines. The Metro Center for Defending Journalists recorded over 100 complaints such as 50 arrests, 34 cases of equipment being seized, 21 assaults, and five reporters being killed during 2012. Kurdistan has laws that protect the right of journalists to report stories about the government as long as they are supported by evidence. As these cases show, this legislation is often ignored. In fact, the attitude of the authorities is that these stories are an affront to their public standing. In talks with Human Rights Watch for example, various officials said that they would not stand for any accusations of corruption against the ruling parties, that these stories were “violating the human rights of the government,” and that the articles were all based upon lies. It’s those feelings that lead to reporters and others being picked up and detained or sued in Kurdistan.

Human Rights Watch also found cases of the KRG limiting protests. On February 17, 2012, hundreds of security forces surrounded around 150-200 people in Sulaymaniya City who were attempting to commemorate the 2011 protests that occurred there. The security forces beat up the activists, as well as reporters trying to cover the event. Two journalists were arrested as well. The police continued to crackdown on both demonstrators and reporters who attempted to mark the anniversary for the rest of the month. People originally began assembling in Sulaymaniya in 2011 to protest against the monopolization of power and corruption of the ruling parties. They lasted for several months. The government gave lip service to their demands, but in the end resorted to force to break them up. This showed that the Kurdish parties were not only unwilling to carry out any meaningful reforms, but would not stand for people who publicly questioned their rule either. Like with the media, the security forces were used against those that decided to speak out.

Finally, there was the case of Akram Abdul Karim, a former customs officer who accused leading officials of theft. In November 2011, Karim told Livin Press that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was confiscating many of the custom fees collected at the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing with Turkey. He later told Naliya TV that the money was going to KRG Premier Nechirvan Barzani. As a result, Karim was arrested, beaten, and denied a lawyer for up to three weeks. He was later charged with violating national security, because he talked about classified material. Karim is still being held in Dohuk with no court date set for his case. Rather than investigating Karim’s stories, the police decided to arrest him, beat him, and still holds him to this day. Again, the government proved uninterested in questions about how it ran the region, and decided to muzzle a critic instead.

Kurdistan might be more peaceful and stable than the rest of Iraq, but the way it deals with the media and dissenters is the same as the central government. Neither takes criticism well, and readily uses the security forces against those that question them. That shows that rule of law is weak, and the politicization of the police and armed forces. Iraq does have a large number of media outlets, something that is new to the country after decades of dictatorial rule. At the same time, the country is one of the most corrupt in the world. That provides a plethora of stories to report and protest about. The problem is anyone that chooses to do so faces the risk of raising the ire of the elite, and could be arrested, beaten, and held for long periods in retaliation. Until Iraq’s political parties understand that they have to respect those that differ in opinion, and that accountability is part of good governance, these abuses will continue.

SOURCES

Ahmed, Hevidar, “Kurdistan’s Border Revenue Scandal,” Rudaw, 12/1/11

Human Rights Watch, “Iraqi Kurdistan: Free Speech Under Attack; Government Critics, Journalists Arbitrarily Detained, Prosecuted for Criticizing,” 2/10/13

Kurdistan Tribune, “”Border point taxes are pocketed by KDP deputies” claims ex-security boss,” 11/27/11

Saifaddin, Dilshad, “Two journalists arrested in Sulaimaniya,” AK News, 2/17/12

Shafaq News, “43 cases of violation against journalists in Kurdistan,” 7/17/12

At One Time It Was Violence, But Now It’s The Government That Is Restricting Press Freedom In Iraq

Originally, Iraq’s insurgency and civil war made it very difficult for reporters to do their job in the country, but now that situation has changed. Violence has subsided in recent years, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been fatalities amongst the press corps recently. More importantly, media outlets are now facing increasing pressure from political parties and the government. These difficulties were documented in Reporters Without Borders’ annual World Press Freedom Index, which was released in January 2013.

Iraq was ranked towards the bottom of the Reporters Without Borders report. Out of 179 countries included in the study, Iraq was 150. That was actually up two from the 2012 Index, but that year Iraq dropped 22 spots from the previous one. The main reason why Iraq did so poorly was continued violence against reporters, and government restrictions upon the press. In 2012, three journalists were killed, while seven died in 2011. In the past, those deaths could be attributed to armed groups, but the situation within Iraq has now changed. Journalists are just as likely to be killed by militants, as under mysterious circumstances that might include government forces. Radio personality Hadi al-Mahdi for example, was killed in September 2011 after criticizing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and participating in protests in Baghdad. Many accused the authorities of murdering him. Overall, Reporters Without Borders found that the press was routinely stopped from doing their job. Sometimes that came in the form of defamation lawsuits by politicians. During the 2012 demonstrations, reporters were prevented from covering events by being beaten, and having their equipment confiscated and broken by the security forces. Just recently in January 2013, a French photojournalist working for Le Monde Diplomatique was detained in Baghdad for not having a permit. In the capital, reporters are required to get permission to take photos of checkpoints and the security forces. According to the journalist’s sister however, he was arrested for taking pictures of a water treatment plant. This showed the increasing restrictions the authorities were placing upon the media, and limiting the flow of information. Before, it was insurgents or militias that were the main threat to freedom of the press. Now it is the government that is clamping down on journalists.

Even though Iraq is surrounded by monarchies and autocrats, it was still ranked towards the bottom of the Middle East and North Africa. It was 13 out of 19 countries in the region. At the top were Kuwait at 77, Lebanon at 101, and Qatar at 110. In comparison, at the bottom were Yemen at 169, Iran at 174, and Syria at 176. In 2012, many of these countries’ scores improved due to the Arab Spring. Since then many of them have gone back down, which led Reporters Without Borders to argue that the 2013 report was more representative of the true nature of press freedom in each country. Almost all of them were still in the bottom half of the world, pointing to the lack of elected governments throughout the region.

Reporters Without Borders 2013 Ranking Of The Middle East/North Africa

1. Kuwait 77

2. Lebanon 101

3. Qatar 110

4. Israel 112

5. United Arab Emirates 114

6. Algeria 125

7. Libya 131

8. Jordan 134

9. Morocco 136

10. Tunisia 138

11. Oman 141

12. Palestine 146

13. Iraq 150

14. Egypt 158

15. Saudi Arabia 163

16. Bahrain 165

17. Yemen 169

18. Iran 174

19. Syria 176

Iraq has struggled to become a democracy since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein. For the first five years, violence was so bad it was difficult to achieve much. Since then security has improved, but political divisions and mistrust are now what characterize Iraq. Politicians have proven to not appreciate bad press. The result is lawsuits, threats, beatings, and other restrictions upon journalists. That’s the reason why Iraq continues to have such a poor score in Reporters Without Border’s Press Freedom Index. Until Iraq fully appreciates the free press it will not do much better.

SOURCES

Agence France Presse, “French-Australian journalist held in Baghdad jail,” 1/29/13

Amnesty International, “Days Of Rage, Protests and Repression In Iraq,” April 2011

Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2012,” 1/22/12

- “World Report 2013,” 1/31/13

Rao, Prashant, “Iraq press freedom in jeopardy,” Agence France Presse, 9/5/12

Reporters Without Borders, “2013 World Press Freedom Index: Dashed Hopes After Spring,” January 2013

Fifth Year In A Row Iraq Ranked Most Dangerous Country In World For Journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists released its yearly report on press freedom around the world. It looks at violence and murders of reporters, and whether those cases are prosecuted or not by authorities. For the fifth straight year, Iraq was ranked the worst country in the world in terms of protecting the media.

In 2008, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) started releasing its Impunity Index that ranks countries on whether reporters are protected or not by their governments. For the fifth straight year Iraq was ranked the most dangerous place for journalists around the world. Since 2003 there have been 93 unsolved murders of members of the press. None of the cases have been solved, and no one has ever been punished. The CPJ noted that the number of deaths has gone down since the heyday of the sectarian civil war, which lasted from 2005-2008. In 2011 for instance, there was only one death, Hadi al-Mahdi. He was a radio host who criticized the government and was participating in protests that broke out at the beginning of that year. In February 2011, he was picked up in Baghdad at a café after demonstrating, taken to a camp run by the 11^th Army Division, interrogated, beaten, faced electric shock, and threatened with rape. That didn’t stop his work at the radio station, and he received daily death threats until he was murdered in his home in Baghdad. That compared to four journalists who were killed in 2010. It’s the accumulation of cases over several years however that placed Iraq at the bottom of the CPJ report.

Activist and radio host Hadi Al-Mahdi was murdered in his home in Baghdad in 2011 (BBC)

On the Impunity Index, Iraq ranked almost three times as bad as the number two country on the list. Iraq had a rating of 2.906, which represented the number of unsolved murders per million inhabitants of the nation. That was a slight improvement from 2010 when it had a rank of 2.921. In second place was Somalia with 1.1813, showing that Iraq was a far worse place for the safety of the media. After that was the Philippines at 0.589, Sri Lanka at 0.431, Colombia with a score of 0.173, Nepal at 0.167, Afghanistan with a 0.145, Mexico at 0.132, Russia at 0.113, and Pakistan rounding out the top ten with a 0.109. Many of those countries have gone through civil wars, insurgencies, or narco-trafficking in the last several years, but they have no where near the number of unsolved cases against journalists as Iraq. That’s a strong sign that the Iraqi security forces are not seriously looking into these cases, and that the judiciary is not pushing to investigate or prosecute them either.

The dramatic decline in journalists’ deaths in Iraq should be a positive sign for the country. Unfortunately the authorities are still trying to establish their relationship with the media. It is common for reporters to be sued by politicians for libel if they publish a critical article. Some issues are considered off limits, because journalists fear that they may be arrested or attacked if they discuss them. During the protests that broke out at the beginning of the year, many media outlets were also assaulted. The fall of Saddam Hussein has opened up a plethora of newspapers and magazines, some of which are directly run by political parties, while some are independent. That range of choices offers Iraqis a wide range of opinions to read. Their ability to report on what they want is not fully protected however, as the number of unsolved murders of journalists shows, plus the common attacks upon them, both violent and legal. The government has yet to decide how much press freedom it will allow, and how much protection it will give the institution. That will mean more insecurity for the foreseeable future until all of these issues are played out.

SOURCES

Amnesty International, “Days Of Rage, Protests and Repression In Iraq,” April 2011

Committee to Protect Journalists, “Getting Away With Murder,” 6/1/11

2011 Bad Year For Journalists In Iraq

Reporters Without Borders released its World Press Freedom Index for 2011-2012. In it, Iraq dropped 22 places to 152 out of 179 countries in freedom of the media. This report was the latest bad news for Iraq’s journalists who faced a barrage of attacks by the security forces in the first half of the year as they attempted to cover the protests that broke out across the country. Reporters were killed, arrested, and their offices were raided, and burned down during the year. That shows that Iraq still has a ways to go to become a full democracy where reporters can act freely without fear of reprisal by the authorities.

Iraq took a large drop in the standings in the World Press Freedom Index. It went from 130 in 2010-2011 to number 152 in 2011-2012. That put it close to what it was in 2008 when it had a ranking of 168. The major reason for the decline was attacks upon journalists during the protests that occurred in Iraq during the first half of the year. Journalists were routinely targeted by the security forces when covering demonstrations in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square and in Sulaymaniya along with other parts of the country. A famous case was radio host Hadi al-Mahdi. He was originally arrested on February 25, 2011, Iraq’s Day of Rage. He was having lunch with three other journalists at a café after attending the day’s demonstration. 15 soldiers picked him and his friends up, took him to the headquarters of the 11^th Army Division, interrogated him, beat him, electrocuted him, and threatened him with rape. He and his colleagues were all eventually released. Mahdi continued on as a critic of the government and attending rallies in Baghdad. He started getting death threats to stop, and was eventually killed in his home on September 8. The authorities were widely believed to be behind his death. It was attacks and deaths like these that Reports Without Borders marked Iraq down for.

Journalist Haid al-Mahdi at his Radio Demozy before his death in Sep. 2011 (New York Times)

International human rights organizations and Iraqi media groups noted a similar pattern of violence against journalists in Iraq in 2011. In April 2011 Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both released reports about Iraq’s protest movement. Amnesty noted that the Iraqi security forces raided the Baghdad offices of Al-Diyar TV station, stopping it from covering the demonstrations, and arresting seven staff members. In Karbala, a Reuters' reporter was beaten and hospitalized by the police. A Radio Sawa journalist in Mosul was also attacked, and stopped from covering the day’s events there as well. Human Rights Watch had similar examples, such as interviewing 20 Iraqi reporters who all said they had been intimidated, harassed, received death threats, been arrested and beaten, or had their equipment taken. It also noted that the Kurdish press group Metro Center documented 150 cases of attacks and harassment upon Kurdish journalists by the security forces from February to May as they were covering the protest movement in Sulaymaniya. That would be the focus of a May report by the group that noted that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was committing massive media abuses. The regional government had filed lawsuits, and used beatings, arrests, and death threats in an attempt to limit the coverage of the demonstrations. Finally, in its World Report 2012, Human Rights Watch said that the situation within Iraq was poor due in part to a government crackdown on the media. Within the country, the Metro Center for Defense of Journalists in Kurdistan said there were 359 violations against the media in the region by the end of 2011. That included 85 beatings, 81 preventions of doing work, 57 threats, 52 arrests, 41 confiscations of equipment, 9 cases of destroyed equipment, 9 attacks on media offices, 9 shootings, 8 cases of offices being set on fire, 4 fire bombings, 2 shootings at TV channels, one case of planting a bomb at an office, and one burning of a journalist’s vehicle. Similarly, the Kurdistan Union of Journalists reported 277 cases of abuses against the media in the region for the year, 257 of which were during the demonstrations in Sulaymaniya that started in February. This showed a concerted effort by Baghdad and Irbil to stop the media from covering the protests that broke out at the beginning of the year. They did not want coverage of those events, nor for the news to spread to other parts of the country. Their choice of tactics was the use of force to intimidate the media into backing off.

A reporter being punched by a policeman while covering demonstrations in Basra 2011 (AP)

In terms of its neighbors, Iraq was right in the middle according to Reporters Without Borders, which is ironic, because it is one of the only democracies in the entire region. Out of the 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Iraq was number 18. Kuwait at 78, Israel and Lebanon at 93, were at the top, while Bahrain, 173, Iran, 175, and Syria, 176, were at the bottom. Israel and Lebanon are democracies so it should be no surprise that they ranked so high. Kuwait is still a monarchy, but obviously gives its media a lot of freedom. Palestine and Iraq are the only other countries with elected governments and they both fell in the middle of the pack at 133 and 152 respectively. Iraq obviously has a lot more work to do develop this part of its political culture, because it is the lowest ranked democracy in the region, and even behind eight countries that aren’t.  

Middle East/North Africa Rankings By Reporters Without Borders

1. Kuwait 78

2. Israel 93

2. Lebanon 93

4. UAE 112

5. Qatar 114

6. Oman tied 117

7. Algeria tied 122

8. Jordan 128

9. Palestine 133

10. Tunisia 134

11. Morocco 138

12. Iraq 152

13. Libya tied 154

14. Saudi Arabia 158

15. Egypt 166

16. Yemen 171

17. Bahrain 173

18. Iran 175

19. Syria 176

Iraq is one of only four democracies in the Middle East and North Africa, but the government did not seem to appreciate what that entailed in 2011. When faced with dissent, both the central and regional Kurdish governments resorted to using the security forces to carry out arbitrary arrests, secret attacks, beatings, and other abusive tactics against members of the media. This happened across the country, not just in Baghdad and Sulaymaniya. Allowing a free press is an essential part of developing a democratic society. Letting the public know what is going on in the country, so that it may make choices about its future politicians is an important ingredient in any elected form of government. It is no surprise that Iraq has been labeled a struggling democracy, because it does not have all of the liberties that one entails yet as shown in the events of 2011.

SOURCES

Agence France Presse, “Iraq’s protest movement: despondent and divided,” 1/31/12

Amnesty International, “Days Of Rage, Protests and Repression In Iraq,” April 2011

Arango, Tim, “Text Messages Proliferate as Threats in Iraq,” New York Times, 4/26/11

Aswat al-Iraq, “20 atrocities cases against journalists in Kurdistan registered – report,” 12/27/11

- “359 violation cases against journalists reported in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region in 2011,” 1/14/12

- “Feb. 25^th – Bad Day for freedom of press and democracy in Iraq:,” 2/26/11

BNO News, “Over 160 attacks against Iraqi journalists, media institutions in two weeks,” 3/10/11

Human Rights Watch, “Iraq Widening Crackdown on Protests,” 4/21/11

- “Iraqi Kurdistan: Growing Effort to Silence Media,” 5/24/11

- “World Report 2012,” 1/22/12

Al-Jourani, Flaiyeh, “Violence against journalists soars in some Iraqi provinces,” AK News, 4/6/11

Al-Mandalawi, Bashar, “Attacks on journalists up 55%,” AK News, 5/3/11

National Iraqi News Agency, “Demonstrators in Baghdad urges government to force Kuwait not to build Mubarak sea-port,” 7/29/11

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, “Iraqi Journalists Press Charges Over Assault At Protest,” 3/9/11

Reporters Without Borders, “World Press Freedom Index 2011-2012,” 1/25/12

Shelton, Tracey, “”The Other Iraq” not so free after all,” Global Post, 5/29/11

Van Heuvelen, Ben, “The Man Who Would Be King,” Foreign Policy, 6/13/11

Van Wilgenburg, Wladimir, “HRW: Kurdish Government Not Better Than Saddam Hussein’s,” Rudaw, 5/28/11

Al-Yousef, Murtadha, “Journalist detained at Baghdad protest,” AK News, 7/24/11