KDP Drops Lawsuits But Media Wants More | Rûdaw

Nawzad Mahmoud - SULAIMANI: Iraqi Kurdistan: A recent decision by the deputy chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Nechirvan Barzani, to drop all the lawsuits filed by his party against critical writers and media outlets, has been welcomed worldwide, and here, authors and editors critical of the KDP are looking forward to seeing more from the party.

Prominent Kurdish author, Mariwan Wria Qani, who had been sued by the KDP for co-authoring an opinion piece on the party’s chairman, Massoud Barzani, described the lifting of the lawsuits as a “positive and moral event.”

"This is a step which pleases me,” said Qani, a Netherlands PhD graduate, specializing in Kurdish nationalism. “This seems to be an indication that the KDP has changed its attitude in regard to free media.”

Qani had been expected to give an interview on January 11th at a Dutch radio station to discuss the lawsuits and the situation of the free press in Kurdistan, but Barzani’s decision to withdraw the litigations resulted in him sending his apologies to the station and canceling the interview.

“I told them that KDP’s position had changed, and there was no relevant reason left for me to do the interview,” said Qani, adding that he hoped the KDP’s decision was long-term.

However, the withdrawal of the lawsuit against Qani and his co-author, Aras Fatah, came a week before Barzani’s announcement to drop the KDP’s lawsuits against the media en masse.

Qani and Fatah had written a highly critical analysis of a statement made by Massoud Barzani, also the Kurdistan president, in parliament last year. They had interpreted Barzani’s statement as a “serious threat” to the freedom of expression.

Shwan Muhammad, editor-in-chief of Awene weekly newspaper, has been subject to scores of lawsuits from various political parties, particularly the KDP. He said the withdrawal of the lawsuits was not enough and urged the party to provide journalists with wider access to information.

“We need further steps taken,” said Muhammad. “The Press Law should be better enforced.”

As the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were Kurdistan’s two ruling parties, representing the majority of the people, Muhammad said, they should pass a law to “fund free media” to allow the media to thrive.

“The funding should not come [directly] from the government or the political parties; it should come from another channel,” said Muhammad.

Last year, the KDP filed 28 lawsuits against politically independent and opposition authors and publications concerning disparaging articles written about the party and its leadership.

Yasin Omer, a journalist writing for the muckraking magazine, Lvin, said that the KDP had angered many people by filing these lawsuits, and that the KDP needed to do more than just withdraw the lawsuits in order to normalize its relations with the public and the media.

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