The Kurdistan region of Iraq has hit rock bottom.
What was once a promising 'other Iraq' is now a politically and
financially bankrupt disappointment, writes Judit Neurink.
"Welcome to 'the other Iraq'," tourists would be told when
holidaying in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The three Iraqi provinces
the Kurds have governed since 1992 were not only lush, green and
mountain cool, but also more liberal, democratic and safer than the rest
of Iraq.
It was the promise of democratic
development that brought me to Kurdistan's cultural capital,
Sulaymaniyah in 2008. After years of regularly visiting Iraq to train
journalists, I had come to set up a media centre focused on developing
the role of media, politicians and police in their new democracy.
Here, intellectual freedom -
struggling in the region as a whole - finally seemed a given.
Independent media started up, we organised debates, people dared to
speak out. It was a completely different situation from the rest of Iraq
and would only get better with time.
Twelve years later, that promise
seems to have vanished behind the mountains. Soon after I settled in
Kurdistan, one of my students was murdered for exposing ties between
politicians and prostitution. More colleagues have been killed since.
Tribal loyalties and overeager party members were usually blamed, in
order to hide the darker and still less palatable truth.
A press law was now in place, but most courts still tried journalists using older laws that allowed them to impose punishments for reporting on taboo subjects like fraud, self-enrichment and abuses of powers.
A press law was now in place, but most courts still tried journalists using older laws that allowed them to impose punishments for reporting on taboo subjects like fraud, self-enrichment and abuses of powers.
I have seen TV studios set on fire
and journalists beaten, harassed and arrested. Independent papers have
now disappeared from the streets, and are now fighting for survival
online. The freedoms the Kurds had worked so hard to prioritise, have
been taken away by politicians who always put their own survival first.