NRT reporting team arrested in Duhok while covering protest aftermath
Kurdish security forces have arrested several NRT Digital Media reporters, cameramen, and employees covering the aftermath of deadly protests in Shiladze.
Reporters Bryar Neroi, Bewar Hilmi, Nihad Oramali, and Taif Goran were all arrested
Also arrested were cameramen Omar Hamid and Adil Sabri and driver Abdulbari Abdulhakim.
One team was filming in front of Duhok Emergency Hospital in order to report on the condition of injured protesters who were being transferred there on Saturday evening (January 26).
They were then approached by the security forces as they were broadcasting, arrested, and taken away in a car.
Their equipment was seized by the authorities.
Director of NRT Shwan Adil said that the journalists‘ safety was the responsibility of the security forces in Duhok.
The head of the New Generation Movement’s caucus in the Kurdistan Parliament, Kazm Faruq, later said that the arrest of the NRT journalists by security forces called the KRG’s commitment to freedom of the press into question and that it represented a “black stain on the faces of the authorities in that area.”
“The KDP is responsible for the safety of the journalists and the teams, as well as the KDP should release them as soon as possible.”
At least one person died and at least ten people were wounded when protesters stormed a Turkish military facility in Shiladze in Duhok province.
The protests were in response to Turkish airstrikes that killed four people on Wednesday.
(NRT Digital Media)
