.Journalists complain of pre-poll intimidation in Iraq north
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Kurdish journalists covering the campaign for Iraq's March 7 general election have been subjected to attacks and have had their movements restricted, media groups said on Friday.
Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group, published a statement cataloguing "a spate of threats, harassment and physical violence against journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan".
In the most brazen criticism of the intimidation reporters have felt, one of the autonomous Kurdish region's newspapers left its front page blank on Wednesday except for the headline: "You Have Guns, We Have Pens".
Inside the Hawlati (Citizen in Kurdish) bi-weekly was an open letter to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani calling for an end to attacks against journalists.
"You must intervene to stop attacks against independent journalists, prosecute the perpetrators, and allow journalists to carry out their work," said the open letter, written by Kamal Rauf, Hawlati's editor in chief.
The publication said one of its journalists was attacked and had his equipment confiscated by unidentified men near the offices of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party.
Rauf told Reporters Without Borders that he had spoken to regional prime minister Barham Salih, who had pledged an investigation.
The international press watchdog listed that and several other incidents against journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Among them were, on February 19, an attack on two reporters working for the Speda television network, which belongs to an opposition party, in the regional capital Arbil.
A day earlier, the publisher of Hawlati, Ara Ibrahim, and a journalist for the Livin magazine and the Goran TV station were attacked in the region's second city of Sulaimaniyah.
Ahmad Mira, editor of the Lafine political magazine added that the attacks demonstrated that the region's two main parties, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani, "considered journalists to be enemies".
Iraq's election commission has imposed a 9:00 pm curfew on campaigning in Sulaimaniyah province after a number of violent incidents were reported.
The province has been the focus of considerable tension between rival Kurdish parties, vying for maximum leverage in the event that the Kurds are kingmakers in the next Iraqi government.
A new Kurdish list called Goran (Change) and comprised of former PUK activists emerged in regional polls last year as a rival to the two main Kurdish parties.
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Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group, published a statement cataloguing "a spate of threats, harassment and physical violence against journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan".
In the most brazen criticism of the intimidation reporters have felt, one of the autonomous Kurdish region's newspapers left its front page blank on Wednesday except for the headline: "You Have Guns, We Have Pens".
Inside the Hawlati (Citizen in Kurdish) bi-weekly was an open letter to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani calling for an end to attacks against journalists.
"You must intervene to stop attacks against independent journalists, prosecute the perpetrators, and allow journalists to carry out their work," said the open letter, written by Kamal Rauf, Hawlati's editor in chief.
The publication said one of its journalists was attacked and had his equipment confiscated by unidentified men near the offices of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party.
Rauf told Reporters Without Borders that he had spoken to regional prime minister Barham Salih, who had pledged an investigation.
The international press watchdog listed that and several other incidents against journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Among them were, on February 19, an attack on two reporters working for the Speda television network, which belongs to an opposition party, in the regional capital Arbil.
A day earlier, the publisher of Hawlati, Ara Ibrahim, and a journalist for the Livin magazine and the Goran TV station were attacked in the region's second city of Sulaimaniyah.
Ahmad Mira, editor of the Lafine political magazine added that the attacks demonstrated that the region's two main parties, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani, "considered journalists to be enemies".
Iraq's election commission has imposed a 9:00 pm curfew on campaigning in Sulaimaniyah province after a number of violent incidents were reported.
The province has been the focus of considerable tension between rival Kurdish parties, vying for maximum leverage in the event that the Kurds are kingmakers in the next Iraqi government.
A new Kurdish list called Goran (Change) and comprised of former PUK activists emerged in regional polls last year as a rival to the two main Kurdish parties.
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