Peregraf
Following the meeting of Peregraf’s staff with a delegation from the British Consulate General in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan Region, readers, including a Member of Parliament, have been praising the websites journalism effort professionally and unbiasedly.
Sarah Marsh, Political Officer from the British Consulate-General Erbil, visited Peregraf’s main office in the city of Sulaimanyah on Monday 17th of June, 2019 and discussed the freedom of speech and independent media in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with Peregraf’s team.
Peregraf’s team, headed by Surkew Mohammed, Editor In Chief, elaborated the motivations behind founding this independent media and the main obstacles faced by the team during the past couple of years.
On her side, Sarah Marsh emphasized the importance of independent media in the Kurdistan Region and showed the consulates continuing support for independent and professional Kurdish journalism.
"Really enjoyed catching up with @PeregrafNews team today. Discussed how we can continue to #DefendMediaFreedom and UK support for Kurdish journalism," Sarah Marsh tweeted after the meeting.
Many other officials and readers have also reflected on Peregraf’s articles from the past two years.
"PeregrafNews is a new initiative and thank you for your support for them. Indeed, they are doing an incredible job," tweeted Sarkawt Shams, MP in the Iraqi parliament from the Iraqi Kurdish opposition New Generation party.
Christine van den Toorn, Senior Advisor of the Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimanyah, also tweeted about Peregraf and said: "Kudos to @PeregrafNews for working against grain, great outlet led by @SurkewMohammed remarkably managed to open persist and expand in Iraqi Kurdistan while sadly almost all independent post 03 outlets have contracted or closed, hope this important news source will continue to grow, deserves support."
Peregraf is an independent online outlet; it follows the main principles of journalism such as impartiality, accuracy, and accountability.
Through investigative reports, Peregraf mostly covers the Kurdish political, economic and social affairs. The websites coverage focuses on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, despite working on the issues of the other three parts of Kurdistan in Turkey, Iran, and Syria as well.
Peregraf is an entirely independent outlet, devoid of any affiliation with political parties or any other political or business figure, as it was funded by its founders. So far, the only financial source of the website is coming through advertisements and grants of independent journalism organizations. Last year it received $24000 from the Open Society Foundation for a one-year project.
The trust of its readers is significant to Peregraf, thus it adopted "Anchored on Trust" as its main motto.
The Kurdish version of the website was launched in January 2017 while the English section was launched in November 2018.