Head of Kurdistan's Journalists Syndicate on marginalizing Kurdistani media persons: "unconstitutional"

Shafaq News/ The head of Kurdistan's Journalists Syndicate, Azad Hamad Amin, criticized the marginalization of the Region's media persons by the Federal Government against the ground of precluding them from the allowance it allocated to their colleagues in the Iraqi governorates.

Amin told Shafaq News Agency, "the Region's journalists are subject to flagrant marginalization by the federal authorities in a time they carry the burden of delivering the voice of the Iraqi citizen throughout the Kurdistan Region."

The head of the Region's Syndicate highlighted the role journalists played in bolstering the security forces during the battle with ISIS terrorist group and ensuring that the voice of more than one million internally displaced persons is heard by the international community and the federal authorities.

"The Kurdistan Region journalists, with utmost professionalism and credibility, contributed to unifying the Iraqis and bridging the ties between the territories of the entire country."

"The Syndicate of the Kurdistan Region-Iraq Journalists was established in accordance with Act 40 of 2004. Per the first amendment of the Syndicate's internal law no. 4 of 1998, it became a member of the International Union of Journalists. The Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists approved this earlier."

"Are the funds allocated journalists and artists federal assets? Is the budget of the Ministry exclusive to certain Iraqi governorates? Is not our Syndicate recognized? Is the ostracism of the Ministry of Culture to Kurdistan's Syndicate of Journalists constitutional?"

Amin chastised the failure of Kurdistan's representatives in the Iraqi parliament to protect the rights of the Region's journalists, calling them to live up to the level of support the latter gave them during their campaigns.

"The majority of them repudiated the duty of defending the rights of the people of the Kurdistan Region, including the Journalists."

Amin lambasted the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate silence toward the violence against the members of Kurdistan's Journalists Syndicate in the contested territories between Baghdad and Erbil.

"The Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists did not take a stance from those violations against their colleagues who were providing a voice for the people of the disputed territories."

"Why does not the federal authorities have a sense of responsibility towards the Journalists of Kurdistan? Is it mandatory to demand our rights while it does not pay heeds to its citizens in the Kurdistan Region? Is there any law that distinguishes between the way the Syndicates of Iraq and Kurdistan shall be treated with?" Amin said in response to an advisor of the head of Iraq's Syndicate of Journalists who stated that the Region's Syndicate shall submit a request in order to its members to receive the grant.

"If the federal government does not deem the Journalists of the Region -whether Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen- eligible for claiming their rights, the government of the Region, as usual, will redress us. We congratulate our colleagues in the southern and mid-governorates for the grant they have received," he concluded.

Journalists from Kurdistan voiced discontent with the Federal Culture Ministry's decision to deprive the media persons working in the Region of the financial allowances it allocated to Iraqi artists, authors, and Journalists.

Shokor Ahmed, a veteran journalist from the Kurdistan Region, said, "it is obligatory to include the Journalists of the Kurdistan Region in this grant. The Ministry of Culture is a federal entity, and its services shall be equal to all the regions and citizens as stipulated by the Iraqi constitution."

"From a national perspective, the Ministry shall treat the journalists of the Kurdistan Region in the same manner it treats their colleagues in mid and south Iraq," he said.

Hewri Karzan, a Kurdish journalist from the Kurdistan Region, said, "the journalist everywhere in Iraq serves the same cause: delivering the voice of the Iraqi citizen. The people of the Kurdistan Region are Iraqis, and we work to deliver the voice. Our duties are not different from the duties of our brothers and sisters in the southern and central governorates. This is the point of contention: do they deem the people of the Region Iraqis?"

Journalist Razan Majed said that the people of Kurdistan, including media persons, are deprived of their constitutional rights, calling on the Federal Ministry to "grant them equal rights to their colleagues."

"This issue will be an incentive for the Kurdish journalists to continue to work for the national cause," he said.

The Minister of Education, Hasan Nadhem, said that the government has allocated 12 billion dinars to be disbursed as allowances to Iraqi artists, authors, and Journalists. Each journalist is eligible to receive 600,000 dinars, per the Ministry's decision.