Free press workers organised a demonstration in front of the Embassy of Iraq in Brussels to condemn the attacks on journalists and the right to information.

In a statement read in several languages, the Kurdistan Women Journalists Union (ROJIN) and the Kurdistan Journalists' Initiative called on the Iraqi government to ensure the safety of journalists and the conditions for them to practise their profession, and to sentence the murderers of journalists.

The Belgian Democratic Kurdish Community Centre also supported the demonstration for Gulistan Tara and Hero Bahadîn, journalists killed by the Turkish state in a drone attack in Sulaymaniyah on 23 August.

Free press workers from different European countries participated in the demonstration with the photographs of the two journalists and banners reading ‘Journalism is not a Crime! We are journalists, not terrorists’.

A press statement was made in the Kurmanji and Sorani dialects of Kurdish, as well as in Arabic, French and English. In addition, a file was presented to the embassy.

The statement said the following: “Today, as societies need to be informed more than ever due to rising war policies, totalitarian regimes are increasing their pressure on journalists. According to the data shared by the international organisation Reporters Without Borders, many governments around the world are preventing the public's right to information with their policies of repression, arrest, detention and murder of journalists.

Turkey, one of the states that repress, arrest and prevent journalists from practising their profession, has added a new one to its crimes. On 23 August, Turkish UCAVs targeted a vehicle carrying Kurdish journalists in Seyîdsadik district of Sulaymaniyah. Journalists Gulistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn, who were in the vehicle belonging to Chatr Production, a media company operating in Southern Kurdistan, were martyred. In the attack, 6 people, including Chatr Production Supervisor Rêbin Bekir, were wounded.

It is also noteworthy that this attack took place after the ‘Memorandum of Understanding on Military and Security Cooperation and Combating Terrorism’ signed by the Iraqi government and the Turkish state on 15 August. Moreover, regardless of the memorandum, this attack, which was conducted in Iraqi territory, is directly binding on the Iraqi government. After the attack, there was no serious statement from the Iraqi government and no attempt was made against the perpetrators of this attack and assassination. The fact that the Iraqi government did not take any action against the attack will be concrete evidence of the co-operation between Turkey, KDP and Iraq. Therefore, it is the expectation of Kurdish and Iraqi peoples as well as journalists that the Iraqi government takes a step in this regard.

Historically, attacks such as oppression, torture, arrests and massacres against journalists have coincided with times of increasing war policies. As a matter of fact, journalists are targeted in many centres of the world due to war policies. Regimes that want to cover up their own crimes and distort the truth direct their policies of violence against journalists. The 2023 report of IFJ (International Federation of Journalists) confirms this fact. According to the IFJ data shared with the public, 120 journalists and media workers were murdered worldwide in 2023.  As a part of these policies, the Iranian regime sentenced Kurdish female journalist Pakshan Azizi to death on 23 July.

Wherever in the world a journalist is murdered, it is clear that there is an attempt to conceal the truth. Therefore, the murder of journalists is the murder of the truth and the covering up of the crimes that are intended to be committed. It is also an attack against the public's right to information.

Journalists Gülistan Tara and Hero Bahadin were also targeted and murdered for exposing the dirty alliances and crimes carried out through the Kurdish bargain in the region. The Turkish state's war and expansion policies in Southern Kurdistan lead to the massacre of civilians, evacuation of villages, burning of forests and economic crisis. The targeting of women journalists who follow this truth is meant to cover up this massacre.

As ROJIN and Kurdish Journalists Initiative, we underline that journalists who risk all kinds of danger at the risk of losing their lives cannot be subjugated. It is clear that no results will be achieved by suppressing, murdering, attacking and arresting journalists. We demand that the war policies be abandoned instead of silencing journalists.

We call on the public to secure the right to information by not leaving the journalists alone. 

We also demand that women's organisations, with the awareness that every murdered female journalist is the language and voice of women, wage a legal struggle against countries that commit crimes on international grounds. We call on the international press and human rights organisations to take responsibility against all kinds of attacks against journalists.

We call on the Iraqi government and international organisations to;

- Ensure the safety of journalists and secure the conditions in which they practise their profession,

- Secure the public's right to information,

- Sentence the perpetrators who murdered journalists."