Iraq

Cameramen Muthanna Abdul Hussein and Khaled Abdel Thamer, who were working for the Al Iraqia TV Channel, were killed in an explosion caused by a suicide bomber who was targeting the a checkpoint at the northern entrance of the city of Hilla in Iraq.

Given the climate of rising violence in Iraq, it is surprising that being caught in the crossfire has not been the greatest risk to journalists’ lives.

Firas Mohammed Attiyah, who worked for Fallujah TV, was killed in a bomb attack in the town of Khaldiyah, east of Iraq’s Anbar provincial capital, Ramadi whilst on his way to report on the fighting taking hold of the area.

The Iraqi government decides to ban the printing and distribution in Iraq of a Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily newspaper, Al Sharq Al-Awsat.

Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s government is trying to control the production and dissemination of news reports about the fighting in Fallujah and Ramadi between the regular army and militias affiliated to Al-Qaeda and tribal groups.

The Jihadi group known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has carried out violent attacks against news media and journalists in both Iraq and the so-called “liberated” areas of Syria.

Owned by the local government, Salaheddin is the biggest TV station in Salaheddin province. On 26 December, four gunmen staged a suicide attack on the station’s headquarters in the northern city of Tikrit.

Nawras al Nouaymi, a 19-year-old student at Mosul university’s media faculty and presenter for Al-Mosuliya TV station, was shot by unidentified gunmen near her home. She is the latest victim in a long string of murders in Iraq.

According to the Kurdistan Journalists’ Syndicate, a Coordination and Monitoring Committee has been set up to oversee investigations into the brutal murder of Kawa Garmyani, who was shot dead outside his house in east Kurdistan on 5 December 2013.

Kawa Germyani, editor of the magazine Rayal in Iraqi Kurdistan, had been threatened for years in connection with his revelations about corruption within Kurdish institutions and had initiated several judicial proceedings against those responsible for these threats.

Four journalists have been assassinated in Mosul since early October 2013; Iraqi security officials have not arrested or charged anyone in connection with the attacks. At the same time, prosecutors have stepped up criminal prosecutions of journalists for defamation and have increased other harassment of journalists.

Bashar Abdulqader Najm Al-Nouaymi was the victim of a targeted shooting by gunmen using a silencer. His body was found near his home in the Mosul neighbourhood of Nabi Shayth on the afternoon of 24 October 2013.

Gunmen opened fire on Mohammed Karim al-Badrani, correspondent for the independent TV channel Al-Sharqiya, and Mohammed Ghanem, a cameraman, while they were filming in the Al-Sarjkhana area of Mosul in Nineveh province, the station said.

In defiance of security threats, thousands of Iraqis have gathered in the streets to protest against excessive benefits and privileges enjoyed by members of parliament.

Two groups who organized concurrent demonstrations in Baghdad calling for the cancellation of parliamentarians’ pensions applied to the Interior Ministry for permits on 21 August 2013, as required by Iraqi law. On 22 August, Interior Ministry officials refused to issue them permits, without providing them a reason.

On 2 August 2013, security forces invoked regulations that allow police to prevent peaceful protest, to detain 13 people who attempted to demonstrate against corruption and Iraq’s continuing slide into violence.