Committee to Protect Journalists
14/08/2010
New York, August 10, 2010--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by death threats made against journalists at the Sulaymaniyah-based Livin after the magazine published an interview that was critical of a 20th-century Kurdish leader.
In the August 1 interview, a researcher named Irfan Qani Fard discussed the legacy of Mustafa Barzani, a Kurdish nationalist leader and the father of Masoud Barzani, the current president of the Kurdish Regional Government and the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). In the interview, Fard, who describes himself as an independent researcher, asserted that Mustafa Barzani had betrayed Qazi Mohamed, president of the short-lived Republic of Kurdistan, and claimed that he was supported by Iranian intelligence services.
Halgurd Samad, editorial director of Livin, told CPJ that the magazine was then threatened in public statements, e-mails, and text messages.
On Thursday, an entity describing itself as "youth group defending the sanctity of Kurdistan" published a statement in Khabat, the daily newspaper of the KDP, calling on Kurds to "raise their hands against those who want to abuse the history of our leaders, like Qazi Muhamed and General Mullah Mustafa Barzani." It stated that "those who are responsible must be abused and insulted. We are here to sacrifice our lives against those who do not know the borders of their freedom and freedom of others." The statement (translated by the U.K.-based nongovernmental group Kurdish Media) insisted that Livin journalists apologize or "pay the price."
To see the press release, please click the link below:
KDP paper publishes threat against journalists
