MEDIA CONSTRAINTS IN KURDISTAN: AN EDITOR'S VIEW

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000036

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, PAO, NCT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2/11/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM KCOR IZ
SUBJECT: MEDIA CONSTRAINTS IN KURDISTAN: AN EDITOR'S VIEW

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CLASSIFIED BY: Scott Dean, Regional Coordinator (Acting),Reo
Kirkuk, Department of State .
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) SUMMARY. The current editors of Hawlati, Kurdistan's
most independent newspaper, (strictly protect) charge that
Kurdish parties' dominance make press freedoms worse there than
in the rest of Iraq. They said the government routinely
monitored who met with foreign officials. They said the KRG had
launched "dozens" of criminal defamation suits against
newspapers (Articles 433 and 434). Since the parties controlled
the judiciary, getting a favorable ruling was not a problem for
the government. Politicians also pursue "private" libel suits
against the press. The editors argued that the U.S. had made
clear that all the U.S. needed from the KRG was stability. The
Kurdish parties therefore saw they had a free hand on corruption
and anti-democratic practices. They editors said politicians
and the public saw the recent announcements about merging the
two KRG's simply as window dressing. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) The current editor of Hawlati, Twana Othman, and its
foreign page editor, Peshwaz Sa'abdullah (a recent graduate from
the Columbia School of Journalism) (strictly protect throughout)
charged that press freedoms were not as developed in the
Kurdistan Region as they were in the rest of Iraq. Meeting with
RC(A) February 7, they attributed this to the joint monopoly of
power between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan, as opposed to competing parties in Baghdad. In
Kurdistan, the parties were more successful in preventing
information from getting out and, if it got out, preventing it
from getting into the newspaper.


3. (C) While journalists hear rumors (the latest one being
that the wife of KRG-Sulaymaniyah PM Omar Fattah was caught at
Erbil airport leaving with $5 million in cash when police
insisted on checking her luggage),the editors complained
journalists could not get enough confirmation to print stories.
Leaks only came from low-level informants and higher officials
prevented anyone from confirming a story. The government
usually punished leaking officials by transferring them to
lesser jobs. If a corruption story became too hard to contain,
the government would let it come out so long as it was reported
as merely a "bad apple" that the government was dealing with.
The editors said journalists could not in practical terms write
about the continuing systemic corruption. They said
journalists' requests to visit prisons were always denied. They
said the government routinely monitored who met with foreign
officials.


4. (C) They said the KRG had launched "dozens" of suits
against newspapers under Articles 433 and Article 434 of Iraqi
Law 111 of 1969 (criminal defamation). Since the parties
controlled the judiciary, getting a favorable ruling was not a
problem for the government. Judges would, for example, accept
"private" libel suits by public officials while putting libel
suits by others off to the indefinite future. They said KRG-S
PM Omar Fattah was now pursuing a "private" suit against
Hawlati. The paper had, believing it to be true, published that
the PM had fired two communications ministry officials because
they had failed to prevent an online provider from cutting
service to the PM's house for nonpayment. The PM had sued for
libel, saying that his communications minister had fired the
officials, not the PM. The PM was demanding a large "fine" that
would cripple the paper financially. He was demanding a
front-page headline retraction before he would withdraw the
case. They said a reporter was jailed for two days in Erbil in
early 2005 in an Article 433 case. Many cases were filed to
harass the paper but withdrawn as unwinnable.


5. (C) COMMENT. Hawlati is probably the most independent
Kurdish newspaper. It has, unlike other papers, written on
internal politics within both major Kurdish parties. The
editors do not necessarily completely understand the distinction
between criminal defamation and a civil lawsuit by a public
official: they see both -- perhaps justifiably -- as government
attempts at censorship. While the editors did not point to
physical intimidation or other more direct means of dissuasion,
we have not seen any newspaper reports in the KRG on human
rights violations by the KRG, or about systemic governmental
corruption. END COMMENT.

A DISILLUSIONED PUBLIC
--------------


6. (C) The two editors said that the KRG public was tired of
the corruption and ineffectiveness of the major Kurdish parties
who have governed the Kurdish region since its inception. The
public had had high hopes of reform and democratization early

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after the war when CPA had taken over in Kurdish areas and the
parties had been worried. The two editors argued that the U.S.
early on had made clear, though, that all the U.S. needed from
the KRG was stability. The parties therefore saw they had a
free hand on corruption and anti-democratic practices. The
editors said the parties had then made a point to show the
public they had American support through pictures of visiting
American dignitaries meeting senior Kurdish officials. The KDP
and PUK were "like two brands of cigarettes: they are different,
but in the end they both cause cancer." They said both
politicians and the public saw the recent announcements about
merging the two KRG's simply as window dressing.


7. (C) We asked about Hawlati's recent editorial apologizing
to its readers for not criticizing America more. They gave
various fumbling explanations (showing they are even handed;
following public opinion; the U.S. was befriending the powerful
rather than the public),but we will have to see whether this
was a blip or the start of a pattern.
DEAN