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In northern Iraq, journalists who expose government corruption can pay a deadly price
In Iraq, the murders of journalists routinely go unsolved.
The turnout for change over the weekend in Iraq's Kurdish elections highlights the critical role played by independent journalists. In the face of extraordinary efforts to silence them, these journalists have reported abuses within the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), implicating members of the two most powerful ruling parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and challenging their hegemony.
In the run-up to the vote, concerned citizens demonstrated on behalf of freedom of the press in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. They blamed the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) for failing to protect independent journalists from repeated threats, frivolous lawsuits, and criminal violence aimed at stifling all criticism.