"Metro" urges KRG to revoke one of media work law instruction
Shafaq News/ Rahman Gharib, the coordinator of Metro Center for Defending Journalists' Rights, called on Saturday for the cancellation of a new decision by the Ministry of Culture and Youth in the Kurdistan Regional Government regarding media work.
Gharib said to Shafaq News Agency, “we wanted the cancellation of the instructions number (1) for the year 2023 on media work issued by the Ministry of Culture and Youth in KRG.”
He added, “any directive that violated the laws should be canceled, not merely suspended or halted, because that was not the same thing.”
Furthermore, He said “the government's new directive did not cancel or stop the previous instructions, but only changed the wording, a linguistic manipulation is rejected.”
Moreover, Gharib added “when canceling the 2023 instructions, 2014 instructions should be followed, which we do not agree with either.” He explained that those old instructions “had shut down television channels and that they were worse than the current ones.”
According to the official website of the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Kurdistan Region has 127 local and 30 satellite TV channels, 176 radio stations, 121 online platforms, and 988 newspapers and magazines. These media outlets have obtained official licenses from the Ministry of Culture and Youth and the Journalists' Union.
The KRG has recently issued a statement that cancels the instructions and replaces them with a new directive that is supposed to be more flexible and transparent.
The secretary of the Council of Ministers of the Kurdistan Region, Amanj Rahim, announced recently that the Ministry of Culture and Youth in the KRG issued statement number (1) for the year 2024, which was published in the official gazette Waqi'i Kurdistan, issue (314), on 28 January 2023. The statement focuses on regulating media activities in the Kurdistan Region and cancels directive number (1) for the year 2023 on media performance in the region.
Notably, the Ministry of Culture and Youth in the Kurdistan Regional Government has issued directive number (1) for the year 2023 are a set of rules that regulate media work in KRG. They were published in the official gazette, Waqi'i Kurdistan, on May 22, 2023.
The instructions have 17 articles that cover topics such as licensing, registration, content, advertising, and legal issues. the laws that protect authors' rights, and other relevant rules, will be the basis for dealing with cases that go to court. However, the instructions have been criticized by some journalists and media organizations for being restrictive and violating press freedom.
