Agreement between Baghdad Council – Journalist protesters in central Baghdad

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Chairman of Baghdad Province’s Council, Kamil al-Zaidy, has reached an agreement with the Iraqi journalists, protesting in a sit-in demonstration in central Baghdad‘s al-Firdous Square, to form a committee, representing them to “watch the activity of the municipal and services offices in the Province, and inform the Chairman with any violations that necessitate treatment, Zaidy told IraqiNews.com news agency on Thursday. The agreement between Baghdad Council and the demonstrating journalists, who began their sit-in demonstration in protest to bad services and undermining freedoms two days ago, achieved in the presence of the Chairman of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, Moayad al-Lamy, shall enable the journalists to observe the services activity by municipal offices and any violation of freedoms, in order to raise their reports to the Council that will take urgent measures to treat such violations, along with the formation of popular committees by residents of different areas to watch those activities. Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces are witnessing demonstrations by thousands of people, demanding the improvement of services and living conditions, especially the distribution of the government’s Rational List, finding solutions for unemployment and lack of electric power, at a time when demonstrations, organized by the youth and intellectuals in Baghdad‘s al-Muthanaby Street, demanded the improvement of living conditions and putting an end for corruption and restrictions on public freedoms. Zaidy also said that “the Council shall follow up the private electric generators, distributed by the Council, pointing out that 7,000 generators have been allocated by the Council, along with 9,000 other generators, belonging to private citizens, supplied by fuel from the Province’s Council, to help increase the electric power in Baghdad.   The Chairman of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, Moayad al-Lamy, on his part, said that “the media commission, authorized by the Baghdad Council, shall begin its works today (Thursday), to define the shortage of services and report any violation to the Council’s Chairman.” The journalists, on their part, have decided to end their sit-in demonstration as result of the agreement, reaffirming that “they would resume their demonstration in the event of violating the agreement or its non-implementation, demanding the Council’s Chairman, Kamil al-Zaidy, to follow up the reports, carried by the mass media, especially in the poor areas of Baghdad, about the demands of their citizens.