Iraq / Middle East & North Africa

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, July 16, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi authorities to investigate and hold to account the officers who arrested and severely assaulted four journalists in Iraq’s Kurdish region over the past week. “The arrest, abuse, and intimidation of journalists in Iraq’s Kurdish region are deeply concerning and reflect a broader pattern of hostility…

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, July 2, 2025—Iraqi authorities must immediately end their unexplained shutdown and suspension of the privately owned Iraq AlHadath news broadcaster in Baghdad and ensure that media outlets can operate freely and independently, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.  “The shutdown of Iraq AlHadath without transparent justification represents a troubling move against press freedom in…

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, May 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the suspension of the Iraqi political talk show Al-Haq Yuqal (The Truth Be Told), hosted by journalist Adnan Al-Taie on UTV, and urges Iraqi authorities to reverse the decision and ensure that media outlets can freely and independently operate. “The suspension of Al-Haq Yuqal talk show without citing…

Sulaymaniyah, April 28, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned over an arson threat made by the Raba Allah militia against Al Rabiaa TV in Iraq, which led to the deployment of security forces outside its headquarters for one day. On April 24, Raba Allah, which is part of the powerful Iranian-backed militia Kataib…

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, March 3, 2025—Kurdistan security forces arrested four journalists from the new digital outlet Media21 on February 28 in the eastern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, confiscating their phones and taking them from their homes. The journalists were identified as Bashdar Bazyani, Dana Salih, Sardasht HamaSalih, and Nabaz Shekhani. Security forces closed the outlet’s office…

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, February 13, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Kurdistan security forces’ assault on 12 news crews covering a February 9 protest by teachers and other public employees over unpaid salaries, which resulted in at least 22 journalists teargassed, two arrested, and a television station raided. “The aggressive treatment meted out to…

Sulaymaniyah, January 31, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Iraqi Kurdish authorities to release journalist Omed Baroshky after the Duhok criminal court on Thursday sentenced him to six months in prison on charges of defamation. Baroshky’s lawyer, Reving Yaseen, told CPJ via messaging app that the charges stem from a January 23, 2024 Facebook post…

Sulaymaniyah, November 8, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for full accountability in the attack on journalist Wrya Abdulkhaliq, who received 21 stitches after two men stabbed his stomach and hit him in the head with the butt of a gun, in his home near Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaymaniyah city. “We are appalled by the brutal…

The Committee to Protect Journalists has submitted a report on the state of press freedom and journalist safety in Iraq and semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan to the United Nations Human Rights Council ahead of its January to February 2025 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session. The U.N. mechanism is a peer review of each member state’s human…

Sulaymaniyah, August 23, 2024—A suspected Turkish drone strike killed two journalists and injured another in the Said Sadiq district of Sulaymaniyah province on Friday.  “We are deeply saddened by the tragic August 23 drone strike that killed two journalists and injured a third in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Turkish authorities should swiftly…