MESOP : IN THE AREA OF BARZANI’S DESPOTISM – A court in Iraqi Kurdistan fines a magazine $46,000

Shafaaq / MESOP – 19 Oct 2015 – A court in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, has ruled to fine Sulaimani-based Kurdish Honya Magazine with a fine of an amount of 55 million dinars (US$46,312) in favor of a former government official who had filed a complaint against it on changes of defamation his reputation by publishing a subject which is not true.The magazine has published a story about the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economy in Kurdistan Regional Government, Rashid Tahir when the latter submitted a complain to the opinion Court in Erbil against the concessionaire and editor of the magazine and managing editor, as Taher demanded for 500 million dinars as compensation to what he has been exposed to of moral damage.

Tahir has tried as much as possible to make the court resolve his complaint in his favor with the compensation that he demanded against the mentioned persons, but the court fined the editor of the magazine and writer of the subject by 55 million Iraqi dinars only.

In September 2015, a court in Erbil has banned three Kurdish journalists from Honya Magazine from travelling outside Kurdistan region on unclear charges. The owner of the publication Aram Mala Mohamed said we have no details about the reasons behind the court rule. Honya Magazine is a weekly general publication in Kurdish language.

Read more about Freedom of Expression and Journalism in Iraqi Kurdistan