Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq are cracking down on media outlets covering anti-government protests, journalists and rights defenders say, shattering the region's reputation as a liberal refuge.
For decades, Iraqis fleeing pressure by paramilitary groups, tribes and powerful politicians in the more conservative south sought safe haven in the Kurdish region.
But public anger at the Kurdish regional government (KRG) has grown in recent months, prompting protests over unpaid state salaries and Turkish incursions into border areas.
Demonstrators and rights defenders say the rallies have been met with a heavy-handed response from security forces – with reporters increasingly targeted.
"Despite laws guaranteeing press freedom in the region, when political and economic crises intensify, the limits on press reach a point of strangulation," warned the region's Metro Centre for Journalist Rights and Advocacy.
In the first half of 2020, Metro recorded 88 violations against 62 journalists and media outlets, and says the pressure has intensified since mid-June.
Last week, the Kurdish security forces, known as Asayish, forcibly shut down the Dohuk city offices of local television broadcaster NRT, which had been covering protests in nearby Zakho.
"After midnight, security forces stormed our Dohuk bureau and confiscated all coverage equipment," NRT's deputy chief Hawnar Ihsan said. "Our Zakho correspondent Ahmad Zakhawi was arrested and has yet to be released."
Hours later, police shut down NRT's bureau in the regional Kurdish capital of Erbil, prompting condemnations from local and international rights groups.
"This escalating harassment of NRT is unfair and undemocratic, and begs the question why authorities are so scared of the broadcaster that they have to shutter its offices," wrote the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
The situation in Iraqi Kurdistan is going from bad to worse, with the failures accumulating and the protests boiling
Like the rest of Iraq, media outlets in the Kurdish region are nearly all linked to political figures or parties. NRT is owned by a dissident from the New Generation Movement, a Kurdish opposition party.
Press freedoms in Kurdish Iraq are guaranteed by a regional law from 2009, which was commended by the US-based Freedom House rights group at the time for giving reporters "unprecedented freedoms".
"Theoretically, the KRG has a margin of freedom because it has a law that is acceptable to a certain degree," said Yassin Taha, an independent journalist in the region.
In reality, few criticised the ruling elite – until the economic and public health situation became unbearable.
Salaries for state workers have not been paid in months, further straining a consumer economy hit hard by lockdowns imposed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Protests erupted against government graft and waste, and discontent grew further when Turkey launched a ground and air assault against Kurdish militants in the region in June.
The Kurdish government kept silent on the operation, prompting criticism and accusations it was turning a blind eye to the deadly raids.
"The situation in Iraqi Kurdistan is going from bad to worse, with the failures accumulating and the protests boiling," said Taha.
"Silencing outlets and shutting down channels cannot be the solution to successive setbacks during all these long years," he said.
In June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that the KRG was using clauses on defamation and insults in the penal code and other laws to target protesters and journalists.
It said that an Iraqi Kurdish man was held in custody for 29 days for livestreaming a protest in January. The charges were ultimately dismissed.
HRW quoted another Iraqi Kurd who had faced criminal charges as saying he paid money to the Asayish to be released. Afterwards "they told me, 'we might call you in at any time'," he said.
The New York-based HRW watchdog urged the KRG to amend its laws to remove "vague provisions" allowing for pressure on media and activists.
Others have appealed to the United Nations.
Six Kurdish members of parliament in Baghdad wrote to the UN's top official in Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on Friday, urging her to "pressure KRG officials to respect the civil and political rights of citizens".
For Rahman Gharib from Metro, the crackdown could backfire.
"This will create thousands of NRTs – people will become their own correspondents everywhere," he said.
"The era of one television station, one radio station, or one newspaper is gone and will not return. Every citizen now has a television, radio station or newspaper of his own – they can have their voices and demands and opinions heard, just like NRT used to do."
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Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
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Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
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Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
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