Government pressure to prevent journalists from performing their work
According to a group of Iraqi non-governmental organizations concerned with the defence of freedom of the press and journalists in Iraq,. Some Iraqi government agencies, and especially those associated with security have put a series of restrictions and pressure against journalists, and thereby hindering the work of journalists and expose them to danger.
At the same, media in the Iraqi Kurdistan region is facing «difficulties», and demanded that the Kurdish Parliament enacted «new legislation».
The observatory press freedoms is one of civil society organizations active in defending the rights and freedom of information and personnel in Iraq. In a statement, It said «that three days ago security forces stormed the building channel (Faha) space in the city of Sulaymaniyah second largest city in Iraqi Kurdistan, and beaten severely and arrested ten of its affiliates, for (24) hours without any legal justification ». The statement described the body that carried out the operation as an «elements outside the law».
The Secretary-General of the Press Syndicate in Kurdistan Zirk Kamal, the «enormous obstacles stand in the way of media Kurds, especially the lack of modern law and democratic society, as there is no law to protect press freedoms». But he stresses that «Syndicate prepared a draft bill early last year and submitted to the Kurdish Parliament and wish approval at the earliest possible opportunity to get rid of the Baath laws, restrictions and the suppression of free speech.