Fourth in less than a day, another journalist arrested in Kirkuk

Shafaq News/ Security forces reportedly apprehended a journalist on Sunday in Kirkuk, and the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate lambasted the "illegal" deed.

"A force of the National Security arrested my brother, journalist Abdallah Hassari, in Altun Kupri in Kirkuk without presenting the charges," Shaffan Hassari told Shafaq News Agency on his brother's arrest. The latter works for a media outlet affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Kirkuk's office director of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, Mahdi Zeryan, said that the office is keeping tabs on the apprehension of Hassari, pledging to raise alarms on the case at the administrations of Kirkuk and Baghdad.

"We condemn this illegal deed," he said, "arresting journalists for their work is deplorable."

A source told Shafaq News Agency that a security force yesterday, Saturday, arrested two journalists who work for NRT and Kirkuk TV, along with a correspondent for the Turkish "Anadolu" newsagency.

"The force took the arrestees to a detention center without revealing the causes," the source said.

Since October 16, 2017, nearly a hundred Kurd journalists were prevented from practicing their work, and more than fifteen were arrested for unknown charges.