The UNESCO -Iraq office organized, through the Freedom of Expression Sector, an exchange of dialogue between journalists and representatives of the judiciary in the city of Erbil, as part of the activities of the Breaking the Silence Project to enhance the governmental issue and judicial procedures to protect journalists and end impunity, "phase two", funded by the Dutch embassy in Iraq.

The participants agreed to approve the Kurdistan region's action plan to protect journalists and end impunity, where a group of Kurdish journalists presented their most prominent demands before a number of Erbil court judges, and UNESCO, in cooperation with the project team, documented these demands.

Representatives of the judiciary clarified the legal procedures followed in accordance with the Press Law (35 of 2007) and the Right to Information Law in Kurdistan, stressing that the judiciary supports freedom of expression and the international programs implemented in this context, most notably the UNESCO program to promote freedom of expression globally and locally as well.

Journalists participating in this workshop demanded that the authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government adopt a mechanism to protect journalists and promote freedom of expression, while representatives of the judges from Erbil praised the experience of the central judiciary in Iraq in adopting a protection mechanism and establishing publishing and media courts, and a special investigative unit in the Ministry of Interior.

The UNESCO representative presented the outcome of what was achieved in Baghdad in terms of a series of mechanisms and procedures implemented by the international organization in assisting the federal government and the judicial authority to modernize the path of the Iraqi judiciary in dealing with the contents of freedom of expression.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency