Video .. A Security force closes the office of a TV channel in Baghdad

Shafaq News/ The National Syndicate of Journalists in Iraq condemned the storming of a security force to the office of Dijla TV channel on Tuesday, (26 November 2019), at midnight in order to implement the decision of the Media and Communications Commission to close 14 more media and press institutions.

The National Syndicate Monitoring Unit stresses that the decision of the Commission targeted channels that cover the protests and was implemented only on Dijla TV channel.

The National Syndicate Monitoring Unit notes that the media and communications authority always threatens the media with radio and television broadcasting regulations. There is no provision in the Commission's Law No. 65 of 2004 on the closure of the media if it violates the rules of broadcasting.

The National Union of Journalists' Monitoring Unit in Iraq obtained a confidential document issued by the Media and Communications Commission entitled to the Ministry of Interior, which states that "based on the powers of the commission in regulating the media and telecommunications sectors, due to violations of the rules of media broadcasting regulations, and in implementation of the powers granted, it was decided to close TV offices below for three months in the event of non-compliance with the rules of media broadcasting and will take more deterrent legal measures: (Al-Arabiya channel office, NRT in Kurdish, ANB, Dijla, al-Sharqiya News, Fallujah, Al-Rashid, Hana Baghdad, al-Hurra)..

The document stressed the closure of (al-Nas Radio, Sawa, al-Youm, Nawa Radio), in addition to the closure of channels and unlicensed offices.

In view of the legal breach committed by the government after the decision of the Media and Communications Commission, the National Syndicate calls on all media covered by the closure and was closed down, to review them for the purpose of forming a legal team of lawyers union to appeal the decision in court.

It affirms that the implementation of the decision of the Media and Communications Commission to close Dijla TV channel and a number of other channels to muzzle mouths and restrict the freedom of press work, which is guaranteed by the Constitution and the law on freedom of press work.