In Northern Iraq, Journalists Who Expose Government Corruption Can Pay a Deadly Price

The turnout for change over the weekend in Iraq's Kurdish elections highlights the critical role played by independent journalists. In the face of extraordinary efforts to silence them, these journalists have reported abuses within the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), implicating members of the two most powerful ruling parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and challenging their hegemony.

In the run-up to the vote, concerned citizens demonstrated on behalf of freedom of the press in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. They blamed the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) for failing to protect independent journalists from repeated threats, frivolous lawsuits, and criminal violence aimed at stifling all criticism.

Their protest took place on July 21, the anniversary of the murder of the young Iraqi investigative reporter Soran Mama Hama, who was gunned down last summer outside his home in a relatively quiet suburb of Kirkuk.

Just weeks before his murder, Mama Hama had published an article in the independent Kurdish language magazine Livin, which contained evidence of links between police and prostitution. His article featured a woman who runs a network of prostitutes; she estimated that there were over 200 houses of prostitution in the city of Kirkuk alone, with two to six girls to a house.

She explained to Mama Hama how she got started, "The checkpoints and visits to the police stations taught me this business." In exchange for women, she not only made money; she also secured the release of prisoners, the services of the civic registry office, and documents from the passport office.

Mama Hama reported that he had "managed to obtain the names of three police lieutenant colonels and colonels and other high ranking officers who are the prostitutes' customers," officials whose names he withheld from the article.

In a region in which most media outlets are tightly controlled by the two ruling parties, criticism is scarce. Whether print, TV or radio, most media in Northern Iraq do for the KDP and the PUK what Fox News Channel does for the Republican Party -- spin the news.

Unlike the party controlled media, independent journals like Hawllati (Citizen), Livin (Move) and Awene (Mirror), have exposed violations of human rights and corruption -- and they have suffered the consequences.

According to independent Iraqi journalist Kamal Chomani, "The KDP, PUK, and KRG put harsh pressure on independent media. They beat journalists in the center of Hawler [Irbil] and no one was caught. Everyone in Kurdistan knew that the KDP and the PUK were responsible for doing that." Another veteran independent journalist who wished not to be identified said, "It's like reporting during the time of the Bathists."

The murder of 23-year-old reporter Soran Mama Hama was considered by many to be the slaughter of an innocent. A month after his killing, supporters of a free press were heartened when Massoud Barzani, President of Iraqi Kurdistan and leader of the KDP, made a visit to Kirkuk and promised to find the killers.

The fact that no one has yet been charged in the 12 months since his murder, has led some to suspect that Barzani has, in fact, found the murderers and that they reside in his own government.

In Iraq, the murders of journalists routinely go unsolved. The New York-based Center for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) reports that of the 139 Iraqi journalists killed since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, at least 79 died as the result of murder, and not one of those cases has been solved.

The CPJ maintains an "Impunity List" on its website that "spotlights countries where journalists are slain and killers go free." It calculates the number of unsolved murders of journalists in a country as a percent of the national population. For the second year, Iraq has topped that list. Its percentage is nearly double the rate of the next highest nation, Sierre Leone.