UN delegation holds 'significant' meeting with Metro Center
Shafaq News / Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy announced a crucial meeting with a high-level delegation from the United Nations to discuss human rights and freedom of expression in the Kurdistan Region.
According to Hazan Ahmed, the center's representative who spoke to Shafaq News Agency, the meeting took place with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Iraq, Volker Türk, alongside representatives from several civil organizations in the Kurdistan Region. The discussions focused on the human rights situation and the obstacles facing freedom of expression and press freedom in the region.
The meeting highlighted the behavior of security forces towards journalists during demonstrations, gatherings, and protests. It also addressed cases of journalists who have been convicted by the judiciary and the decision to extend the imprisonment of activist and journalist Sherwan Sherwani by the Erbil High Court.
Ahmed emphasized that the cases of activists and convicted journalists are alarming signs of declining freedom of expression and human rights violations in the Kurdistan Region.
In another aspect of the meeting, the risks of hate speech, non-implementation of laws, restrictions imposed on social media networks, electronic harassment, and extortion were discussed.
The Center presented its annual report on violations to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. According to the report submitted to the delegation, the behavior of security agencies towards media teams during event coverage remains unchanged. Most newsworthy events faced obstacles for journalists in providing coverage.
The report documented various incidents in Kurdistan cities, such as arrests without judicial orders, violence, assaults on media teams, and their torture in detention centers run by the police, security prisons, and counter-terrorism units, as well as threats, intimidation, discrimination, and a lack of information.
