Hope became a dream

Like Turkey, Iraq is consistently ranked poorly for press freedom. Journalists are kidnapped and murdered. There are taboo topics no reporter can publish about, and the sectarianism of Iraqi politics, which is closely entwined with the country’s media, makes it nearly impossible to work independently. The situation in the Kurdistan Region, in the north of Iraq, is not fundamentally different. This booklet, published in December 2019, gives insight in the historical backgrounds of the media in Iraq – it wasn’t always this bad! – and examines the laws that urgently need change. It includes interviews with journalists, lawyers, and the wife and the brother of a Kurdish journalist who was killed because of his stories about corruption.