Authorities in Kurdistan Region should transparently investigate murders of journalists: IFJ

11-05-2022 03:28
Monir Zaarour, Middle East and Arab World Policy and Programme Director at IFJ

Peregraf- Farman Sadiq

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has said that it is waiting to form a committee looking into the cases of the journalists who have been murdered in the Kurdistan Region and criticized the authorities for failing to investigate the cases transparently.

"No cases of journalists [being killed] in the Kurdistan Region have been investigated in a clear way, the results have not been published, and the killers have not been arrested or brought to court," Monir Zaarour, Middle East and Arab World Policy and Programme Director at IFJ, told Peregraf in an interview.

"The lack of investigation into these cases will not only destroy the rights of the murdered journalists, but will also enable the murders of other journalists. If the crime goes unpunished, it will be a motivation for other murderers," Zaarour added.

He said that the IFJ was working on the file, but that the official authority in such cases around the world are the United Nations and UNESCO.

"They need to have the opportunity to investigate because they have been formally assigned by the United Nations to publish, investigate, and monitor a UN plan to protect journalists and save them from punishment," he said, referring to the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

"This year will be ten years since the plan was adopted by the United Nations and this year it will be reviewed and we will make a statement as a federation."

Zaarour added that the IFJ has been working for the past three years to change the mechanisms under which the deaths of journalists are investigated, arguing that the current procedures used by the UN are not sufficient.

"We want another international action to be taken in order to make them stronger, including having an expert committee to implement the procedures, as well as a way to take complaints directly from journalists and institutions and to investigate them," he continued.

Asked whether an international court should be established to prosecute cases where journalists have been killed, Zaarour said that "if necessary, or if a state is involved in the killing of journalists, we have suggested that we register a complaint against the country directly with the [UN] Human Rights Council."

"There is a long way to go" on this issue, he cautioned.

Zaarour also said that the IFJ was monitoring the case of journalists and activists arrested in Duhok and Erbil governorates, known as the Badinan detainees, adding that the group opposes arresting anyone for freely expressing their opinions.

However, he said that no organizations, syndicates, or local parties either in the Kurdistan Region or abroad had formally communicated to the IFJ about the status of some of the detainees as journalists.

"No channel has sent us a message about it and no party has shown us that they are journalists or have done journalistic work in the past," Zaarour said, explaining that they were in contact with the Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy and ten international organizations and that only two were willing to take on the cases of the detainees as journalists.

Among the Badinan detainees are two journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), namely Sherwan Sherwani, who was editor-in-chief of Bashwr Magazine before his arrest, and Ghudar Zebari, a journalist for the website Wlat.

The other people who were arrested are activists.

"There is a difference between journalistic work and expressing your opinion," Zaarour said. "As the IFJ, we investigate and defend cases involving journalists…but we cannot take action for [others] except to support them within the framework of freedom of opinion."

He said that the IFJ has discussed the press freedom situation with Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament Rewaz Fayaq and the Kurdistan Journalists’ Syndicate and suggested ways to improve legal protections for journalists.

"We hope that all parties, including the government and parliament, understand that the existence of a professional and independent media is important, even if it is a critical media," he added.