No journalist be arrested before informing Kurdish Government in Sulaimaniya

SULAIMANIYA / IraqiNews.com: Sulaimaniya government shall be informed in advance of any arrest to any journalist in the province, official at the Kurdish region government said here today.   Lateef Sheikh Omar told IraqiNews.com that Kurdish Premier Barham Saleh “is keen to implement the law and avoid violations against journalists, so any journalist to be arrested, with an arrest warrant, we should be informed in advance”.   “The aim is to follow-up procedures taken against the journalists and determine their abidance with the laws”, he added.   These procedures were adopted following storming-in independent Levin magazine and arresting its editor-in-chief Ahmed Mira.   On the other hand, Mira told IraqiNews.com that issuing such order “is something good, but we have, in Kurdistan, the problem of non-implementation of the orders”.   Ex-chairman of Kurdistan Union of Journalists Firhad Awni said that “this move is to prevent violations against journalist”.   RM (TI)/SR 314