Reporting – a danger to Kurdish journalists

Reuters report on the dangers faced by Kurdish journalists working in the enclave in northern Iraq. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists about 60 Kurdish journalists “were killed, threatened, attacked, or taken to court in the first half of 2008”

“In Kurdistan there is no freedom for journalists. I have proof of that — the most recent proof was Soran,” says Hemen Mamand, a young radio reporter in Arbil who wears a small likeness of Che Guevara around his neck. “We don’t know who killed him, but we do know that the government didn’t care,” said Mamand, who himself was threatened when he wrote a story about an alleged case of corruption linked to Kurdish President Masoud Barzani’s powerful KDP party. link