Baghdad (AFP)
After a series of threats and attacks on media outlets in Iraq, the UN and press freedom advocates have called on the authorities to prevent journalists from covering the wave of protests from being "silenced."
Locals ransacked, cut-up transmission and journalists threatened: several TVs told how masked and armed men attacked them in the middle of the night, because they say their coverage of demonstrations in which hundreds of people have been killed since Tuesday.
The attacked media claimed to ignore who these attackers are.
Before these attacks during the weekend, the internet was gradually cut in Baghdad and throughout the south of the country won by the protest. This disconnect continues Monday even as, according to the NGO specialized in cybersecurity NetBlocks, "the Iraqis have the most need to make their voices heard".
On Saturday night, Iraq's private Arab-language channels NRT TV and Al-Dijla, as well as Saudi television Al-Arabiya, announced in news releases that their offices in Baghdad had been attacked.
- "Intimidation" -
NRT TV, based in Kurdistan (north), said that "armed men" had destroyed "most of its equipment, temporarily interrupting broadcasting".
"The mobile phones of some employees have been confiscated," adds the text, adding that the assailants who arrived on board large vehicles had also attacked policemen stationed in the neighborhood.
Al-Arabiya, for its part, broadcast its video-surveillance images. There are ten men wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests entering his offices in Baghdad, throwing computer screens on the ground and rummaging through the drawers.
Al-Arabiya said he obtained "assurances" from Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi's office that the attack would be investigated.
On Monday, the Supreme Council of Magistracy called for "judicial measures against those who attacked television channels".
The UN representative in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said she was "shocked by these acts of vandalism and intimidation", calling for "the government's efforts to protect journalists". "Free media is the best bulwark for a strong democracy".
The head of the Iraqi Freedom of the Press Observatory, Ziad al-Ajili, said he was observing for the first time such an attempt to "terrorize" the media.
"We expect more attacks," he told AFP because "it is an organized and planned operation to silence the media."
- Activists threatened -
A security source told AFP that another Iraqi private channel in Baghdad, Al-Nahrein, had also suffered an attack during which its equipment had been destroyed.
Local private broadcasters Houna Baghdad and Al-Rasheed reported threats, before the second disappeared from the screens after spending most of its coverage on coverage of demonstrations calling for jobs and services, triggered on October 1 and marked by violence that killed more than 100 people in six days.
"We have received direct threats," an Al Rasheed journalist told AFP on condition of anonymity. "We were told: 'Either you change the editorial line or you will experience the same fate as NRT and the others', so we preferred to stop broadcasting."
Even before these attacks, the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) sounded the alarm, accusing the police of arresting, molesting or intimidating media journalists during their coverage of the protests.
"Instead of banishing all journalistic activities, the security forces and the authorities have a duty to guarantee the safety of journalists so that they can cover the events," said Sabrina Bennoui, who is in charge of the Middle East at RSF.
Bloggers and activists also reported receiving threatening messages and phone calls, as well as their families, because of the information, images and videos they broadcast on the protests.
© 2019 AFP