Iraq

Iraqi police forces may have killed one person and wounded others when they fired on protesters in Mosul on 8 March 2013.

During a sit-in in Fallujah on 25 January 2013, demonstrators and army troops clashed when protesters threw stones at soldiers as they made their way to the sit-in. Soldiers fired live rounds, killing nine people. Authorities are yet to complete promised investigations into the killings.

One day after an independent Iraqi station aired a caller’s criticism of the former leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, there was an explosion on the station’s roof.

During 2012, the Kurdistan Regional Government security forces are reported to have arrested and detained at least 50 journalists, critics, and opposition political activists arbitrarily, and prosecuted at least seven of them on criminal charges concerning insulting or defaming public figures.

A French-Australian journalist has been under detention in Iraq without charge for a week for allegedly taking pictures in an area in Baghdad’s Dora district.

On 25 January 2013, violence erupted during a sit-in in Fallujah, one of many sites of regular demonstrations in Anbar province. Demonstrators and army troops clashed when protesters threw stones at soldiers as they made their way to the sit-in. Soldiers fired live rounds, killing seven people, according to these accounts. Another two people who were wounded in the shootings died later from their injuries.

An Iraqi journalist was severely beaten up by Baghdad’s security forces while he was covering celebrations surrounding the 91st anniversary of the founding of the Baghdadi police forces.

Iraqi security forces surrounded the Baghdad offices of Al-Baghdadia TV and Radio Al-Mahaba, shut down both outlets and ordered all employees to leave the premises.

The targeting and harassment of journalists continues in Iraq as one journalist gets kidnapped by security forces while others are assaulted while on the job.

A TV station was banned by Iraqi police officers from reporting on a religious event in Baghdad while security forces arrested, tortured, and refused to release a female journalist in Tikrit.

Iraqi journalist Samir Sheikh Ali was shot three times in the chest while driving his car in Baghdad.

Iraqi security forces violently dispersed a peaceful protest calling for better government services. Kurdistan’s regional forces arrest and sentence a journalist to two years’ imprisonment for exposing corruption.

Journalist Farqad Husseini was killed in a car bomb explosion in the center of al Nasiriyah city, Iraq.

Ghazwan Anas’ shooting was probably a politically-motivated reprisal of the kind that sends a signal to all journalists, according to RSF.

Many journalists and some politicians have criticised the decision as an attempt to gag the media, pointing out that many of the targeted media are noted either for the non-partisan nature of their national coverage or for their frequent criticism of the government.

For Immediate Release Iraqi Kurdistan: ‘Insulting’ Religion Bill Threatens Free Speech Penalties Include 10-Year Prison Term, Closing of Media (Erbil, June 22, 2012) – Members of Parliament in the Kurdistan Regional Government should oppose the Draft Law to Protect Sanctities because it clearly restricts the right to free expression, Human Rights Watch said today. The […]