The Iraqi Media House’s Statement About the Attack on Dijla TV Channel’s
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On Tuesday evening 24 of November, 2015 the Dijla TV Channel witnessed a terrible shooting accident which took place inside its building while employers were still there. The attack happened during the altercation between the MP from the "Dawlat Alkanoon (State of Law) bloc" KadhemAl Sayadi, and the spokesman of "Almowatin" bloc, Baleegh Abo Kalal after they were hosted in the Channel’s studios on two different programs.
The Iraqi Media House condemns this unprecedented and violent assault onthe media. And as the Iraqi Media House has sadly noticed, the political, security, judicial and even the media parties were more interested in the details of the assault committed by one of the guestswith the help of his followers against the other while ignoring the fact that the attack directly targeted an Iraqi media outlet. This terrorized the journalists and media workers and exposed their lives to danger.
The reckless and irresponsible behaviors by politicians, men of power and influential figures towards the Iraqi media parties have reached unprecedented levels. In addition to daily attacks and abuses of the media and its employees, as well as hiding information and preventing the Iraqi media from playing their role in spreading the truth, these parties have gone as far as directly attacking the media, protected by some fragile legal limits. They misunderstood the determinants of parliamentary immunity which ceases to apply when the member of the parliament becomes a perpetrator, a gunslinger and an attacker, one who pulls the trigger to kill.
The Iraqi Media House calls upon the legislative, executive and judicial authorities to play their role with respect to dealing with the assault on the “Dajla” TV channel headquarters and open an investigation in this regard, mainly regarding the assault on a media organization which endangered the journalists and the citizens .The settlement of this matter between the two disputing parties must be done personally and judicially through the legal laws.
The institution concerned with supporting Iraqi media and the detection and monitoring of hate speech expresses its deep concern regarding the lack of legal action in this case and the fact that the case was turned into a personal dispute and a factious rivalry. The origin of the incident, which is the attack on anIraqi media organization and the terrorizing and threatening of its members and putting them in harm’s way, was totally neglected.
Based on that, the institution calls upon the Iraqi Attorney General to take immediate action against the accused and the participants in the incident, and also calls upon the Iraqi media to seek objective coverage of the accident and considerit as a direct insult of the sanctity of media organizations.
“Iraqi Media House”
Baghdad
25/11/2015
Translated by Sarah Alrawi
