HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has halted local broadcast from the TV channel NRT through the Directorate of Media, Printing and Publications in Erbil.

The local broadcast from NRT channel was halted due to an order from Massoud Barzani through the Erbil Directorate of media, Printing and Publications for a week. The block is also intended to apply to the zone controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

“According to order number 619 in August 28, 2014 of the Directorate of Media, Printing and Publications in Erbil, the Directorate-General of Media, Printing and Publications and the Ministry of Culture and Youth, as well as according to instruction No. 1 of 2014 Space Frequency Arrangement of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Article 5, number 2, contumacy A in term 2 of article 3/ the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, it is decided to halt the broadcast of channel NRT from DVBT/T2 for a week,” a statement by the directorate said.

The stoppage came a few days after Kurdish security forces (Asayish) affiliated with the KDP shut down an NRT TV channel’s studio on August 22 in which the broadcast of an outgoing program on the Kurdistan referendum was set to take place.

The closure of NRT’s studio in Erbil comes amid concerns from the head of the KDP, Massoud Barzani, over the “No for Now” campaign on the referendum on the independence of Kurdistan.

KDP Asayish received the order to prevent the opening of the studio from Barzani, according to information obtained by NRT.

This is not the first time Barzani and the KDP have prevented NRT from operating. In 2016, the coverage of the Mosul operation was prevented from the Kurdish TV due to remarks by two guests during a boadcast program. KDP officials and members were also prevented from giving remarks to the TV.

In October 2015, security forces affiliated with the KDP raided NRT offices in Erbil and Duhok, and detained its staff and reporters. The offices reopened in Erbil and Duhok after several months of closure.

The violations against Channel NRT are the opposite of the Journalism Law in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, which was approved by the Kurdistan Parliament in 2007 and Barzani, who was President of the Kurdistan Region, signed the proposal.

The Kurdistan Region’s political parties, not including Gorran Movement and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG), came to an agreement on June 7 to hold a referendum on the region’s independence on September 25, 2017. The decision was slammed by Iraq, US, UK, EU, Russia, Germany, Turkey and Iran.

Analysts have little doubt that the September 25 referendum would result in a ‘Yes’ for an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq.

But the result would be non binding and leave the approximately five million Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan some way away from actual independence.

Read more about Freedom of Expression and Journalism in Iraqi Kurdistan

Read more about Independent Kurdistan state

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