The UNESCO office in Iraq held today, Saturday a specialized workshop in the center of the capital, Baghdad, to discuss the impact of the absence of laws regulating the work of journalists that promote freedom of expression, and draft laws related to freedom of the press, the right to access information, information crimes, and other deferred projects in the Iraqi Parliament.
This activity comes within the context of the project "Breaking the Silence to Promote Government Accountability and Judicial Measures to Protect Journalists and Combat Impunity", in its second phase, funded by the Dutch Embassy in Iraq. As UNESCO seeks with the press and media community to adopt an action plan towards activating patterns of advocacy and urging the authorities to carry out their duties regarding press rights and freedom of expression of opinion in line with international standards.
Representatives of the Ministries of Interior and Justice, the Commission for Human Rights and a representative of the Board of Commissioners of the Media and Communications Authority, along with representatives of the media and civil society organizations concerned with media development, joined in-depth discussions under the supervision of the judiciary to reach special understandings on nine draft laws that are still in the custody of the House of Representatives, regulatory decisions that the concerned parties see as violating the freedom of expression, have been issued by the Communications and Media Commission, in addition to judicial decisions and procedures from the Prime Minister’s office and the offices of some ministries that have been classified within the determinants of freedom of expression and freedom of the press, all of which require efforts and initiatives to change some of them and improve others or cancel them.
The unification of the media and journalist community to stand up to some of the wills that intend to direct the press and the media to act as media of authority or to grant some institutions legal qualities that are not related, among the most prominent criticisms recorded by the international organization, followed by a set of recommendations, some of which were addressed to the House of Representatives to postpone the vote on the draft law on freedom of expression, which is supposed to be put to a vote with the launch of the new legislative term after Eid al-Adha. The attendees also recorded their appreciation for the cooperation of the judiciary with some demands, including the creation of a national guide for the judiciary that respects freedom of expression and cooperation with the efforts of the Breaking the Silence project, again calling on the judiciary to consider some of the measures recently issued by the executive authority that contain legal and constitutional violations.
The Ministry of the Interior has expressed its readiness to start a campaign to train and educate all security personnel affiliated with it regarding the freedom to practice journalistic work under the framework of the Iraqi constitution and the laws in force, including the Journalists’ Rights Law of 2011, and it is fully prepared to launch a campaign entitled Canceling the Baghdad Operations Permit again, as it has already done this.
The female journalists had a clear position in the workshop, as they stressed the empowerment of female journalists and media professionals through these bills, and that the provisions of the guarantees in the Journalists’ Rights Law be activated so that the female journalist obtains her rights within the frameworks of journalistic and media work, and that they give a role to present their observations about the policies of both the Media Network and the Media Authority in a way that guarantees balance in handling and addressing their issues and demands at the same time.
The UNESCO Iraq office used artificial intelligence technology to present the first special axis on "Iraq's international obligations to guarantee freedom of expression and freedom of the press", in a step that is the first of its kind within these activities in Iraq.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency