View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

Building a better Iraq through journalism

C ourt reporting is a staple ingredient of most journalism courses. But in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, the doors to the court room remain firmly closed. ‘You need to know a clerk or a security man at the door,’Thaer Alhamdy, 26, said. Thaer was one of fifteen students I taught a human rights course to in Erbil at the institute Media Bo Khalk – media for the people – founded by Dutch journalist Judit Neurink.

Journalists in Iraq face more closed doors. The students who are enrolled in an eight-month journalism course generally avoid interviews with politicians or bureaucrats or are ignored by them. The recent government decision to close 44 media agencies in the country underlined the terse relationship between the media and government.

This is reflected in the choices the students make when asked to select a human rights issue to write about. They opt for ‘safe’ subjects, such as street children.

Iraqi journalists either become the mouthpiece of political parties or they operate independently and suffer the consequences, like Asos Hardi, the editor of the only independent newspaper in Iraqi Kurdistan, Awena. He was severely beaten up in August last year outside his office for criticising the government.

The students realise they face an incredibly volatile and unpredictable professional environment. ‘How do we know when it’s safe to ask difficult questions,’Achmed asks, a 26 year old Baghdadi who trained as an engineer and then decided he wanted to become a journalist. His brother and father were killed in a car bomb by Shia militias.

The war in Iraq has rapidly evolved into domestic anarchy, sustained by Maliki’s government with its murky allegiances to militias who terrorise the population. Journalists have become one of the biggest casualties; Iraq tops the bill of the global impunity index of the Committee to Protect Journalists. In other words, it is the most dangerous country in the world to work as a reporter. The autonomous quasi-state Kurdistan, in the north, is relatively safe compared to the rest of the country.

Most of the students at Media bo Khalk though, are from the southern part and hail from places like Baghdad, Mosul and Al Qa’im. They grew up amidst the chaos and destruction of war and the ensuing slide of the country into violent anarchy. Human rights have lost all meaning, I realise when discussing hate speech within the context of the right to freedom of expression.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

The Iraqi government actively engages in hate speech. When Human Rights Watch recently reported that several dozen emo youths had been clobbered to death in the past year, the ministry of interior condoned and even encouraged the killings of these adolescents by militias, by labelling them as ‘satanic’.

With a government that actively encourages the extermination of deviant elements in society, there is not much to build a practice of human rights reporting, except for courage, which Ahmed seems to have: ‘I want to help build a new Iraq through my writing.”

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network