Iraq

Contradictory information has been circulating since October 13 about Mohanad Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi journalist thought to be held by the Jihadi group Islamic State in Mosul (in Nineveh province). Many local media reported on the day that Islamic State had killed him. But other sources insisted the following day that he was still alive. The reports of Mohanad Al-Aqidi’s death spread very rapidly in...

Jihadi group Islamic State murdered another Iraqi journalist Monday in Mosul (in the northern province of Nineveh), just two days after publicly executing an Iraqi journalist in Samara (in Salahuddin province). The latest victim was Mohanad Al-Aqidi, the Sada news agency’s Mosul correspondent and a former presenter on now closed Al-Mowseliya TV. Kidnapped in July on his way to Dohuk province, he...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called on the international community to hold those responsible for violence against journalists in Iraq accountable. In a statement to the special session on the abuses committed by the Islamic State and associated groups in Iraq convened by the United Nations Human Rights to day in Geneva, the IFJ highlighted the impunity for killings...

A Kurdish journalist was killed in Makhmur district, south of the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, on Friday when shrapnel from mortar shelling hit her in the chest, according to news reports. Deniz Firat, a freelance reporter, was covering clashes between Kurdish forces and insurgents with the Islamic State, an Al-Qaeda splinter group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, the...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on Iraqi authorities to carry out an immediate and thorough investigation into a vicious attack on the Baghdad office of the Al Ta’khi newspaper on Monday evening, 14 July. IFJ’s affiliates, the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate (KJS) and the Iraqi Journalists’ Syndicate (IJS), have strongly condemned the attack on the paper which...

At least two journalists were wounded, another arrested, and a newspaper office raided in the past week in Iraq amid heightened political uncertainty and violence, according to news reports and local press freedom groups. The violations come as Iraqi authorities struggle to break political gridlock and form a new government while battling an insurgency spearheaded by the Islamic State, an Al-Qaeda...

Iraq’s new media guidelines are so vague as to be wide open to abuse. The guidelines unjustifiably restrict freedom of the press, including by requiring pro-governmental coverage. The government-run Communications and Media Commission (CMC) issued the “mandatory” guidelines on June 18, 2014, to regulate media “during the war on terror.” The guidelines demand that media avoid making...

At least one journalist was killed and another injured Sunday in an attack in northern Diyala province, the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate and Iraqi news outlets reported. The killing comes amid escalating clashes between the Iraqi government and its allies against an insurgency spearheaded by the Al-Qaeda splinter group Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS). Al-Ahad TV channel reported today that...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has advised journalists covering events in Iraq to remain vigilant at all times following the murder of journalist Khalid Hamada yesterday, Sunday 15 June. According to IFJ affiliate, the Iraqi Journalists’ Syndicate (IJS), Hamada, a cameraman for Alahd TV, was killed in the Aladhem district, in Iraq’s Dyali province, while covering fighting...

Iraqi authorities are turning increasingly hostile towards critical journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders. One of latest violations of freedom of information is a warrant for the arrest of Awn Al-Khashlok, the head of Baghdadia TV, and Anwar Al-Hamdani, the host of the station’s “Ninth Studio” programme, on charges of disturbing public order and inciting chaos and inter...