New York, April 8, 2020 -- Authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan should allow the NRT broadcaster to cover the COVID-19 pandemic freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The request was filed in response to an April 5 NRT report alleging that the regional government had inflated the number of COVID-19 deaths in Iraqi Kurdistan in order to discourage people from demonstrating in the streets, according to those reports. “Iraqi Kurdish authorities should reject the Health Ministry’s request to close NRT and allow the broadcaster to continue covering COVID-19 and other newsworthy events freely and without official harassment,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado. Awat Ali told CPJ that NRT had not been directly told to close, and said he found out about the Health Ministry’s letter on the news. Mohamed told CPJ that he had received a phone call from the Asayish on April 5 asking whether he had produced the video report.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 08, 2020 20:48 UTC