Shafaq News/ The security forces used excessive violence to break up the demonstrations near the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in al-Sulaymaniyah, Metro Center for journalists' advocacy said in a statement citing violations against media persons covering the event.
The press freedom watchdog said that a group of students demanding the disbursement of their financial aid gathered near the headquarters of al-Sulaymaniyah University and then blocked the roads leading to the city.
"The security forces used batons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who caused a traffic jam," the statement said.
The students moved their demonstration on the very next day, November 13th, to the vicinity of the PUK Politburo headquarters, where water cannons and tear gas were fired toward the protestors.
The security forces, according to the statements, attempted to hinder journalists from covering the protests and assaulted the media personnel gathering near the headquarters of the PUK Politburo.
Some reporters were assaulted, detained, and forced to delete what they recorded on their mobile phones, the statement said.
The statement quoted reporters from the Voice of America (VoA), NRT, KNN, Diplomatic, BMC, Westga, and other media outlets saying they were beaten, detained, and got their cameras confiscated.
Westga reporter, Lena Bakhtiar, said she was hit by a rubber bullet and detained inside a police vehicle for half an hour.
Metro highlighted a "new phenomenon" of assaulting media personnel by unidentified people in civilian clothes.
The statement quoted the head of the center, Rahman Gharib, saying, "we demand the head of the security committee in the governorate to launch an investigation into these violations."
