Various political parties have been filing lawsuits against Kurdish journalists in an attempt to intimidate them and keep them preoccupied with fraudulent charges rather than conduct their work as they should. Livin magazine’s editor in chief, Ahmed Mera, said they have had more than 27 lawsuits filed against them.
Kamal Rauf who is the editor in chief of another Kurdish publication known as, Hawlati newspaper, said they have had nine lawsuits against their newspaper. Rauf believes that the purpose of these lawsuits is to intimidate their journalists and to keep them from conducting their work for an independent media. Some of these lawsuits are filed by political figures like the Kurdistan president, Massud Barzani and his Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). The KDP’s lawsuit against the Livin magazine arouse from an article about Barzani’s salary.
Some publications have also claimed that criticism of Barzani would lead to frivolous lawsuits; however the KDP has claimed that the lawsuits were a way for the party to defend itself. Ari Harseen, who worked for the KDP’s media office denied the allegations that criticism of Barzani and his family would lead to the lawsuits, and that they believe in coexisting with the free media.
No comments:
Post a Comment