Objections to protecting journalists draft law behind its delay

Iraq-Journalists BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Head of the parliament’s culture, information and tourism committee attributed the delay in approving the protecting journalists draft law to the objections to it, while the Syndicate of Journalists said it has no idea about the reasons behind this delay. “The reason for not approving the bill is due to the objections by some mass media over some articles,” Mufeed al-Jazaeri told IraqiNews.com. “The disagreement concentrates on several articles, including the rejection of giving anyone a journalist’s identity, except those who are members of the syndicate,” he said, noting that there some people who are working for journalistic institutions, but they are not journalists. “The parliament’s chairmanship and a group of media men and journalists discussed the bill a few days before,” al-Jazaeri said. “A committee, formed from legal and media men, studies the law and presented it to our committee and there was an initial agreement to invite media men to discuss the law’s objected articles,” al-Jazaeri continued, explaining that this would be done after receiving the approved text from the Shoura council. Meanwhile, the head of the Journalistic Freedom Observatory (JFO) said that “the parliament’s culture and information committee has not so far specified the day to discuss the draft law,” ruling out discussing the law soon as the parliament is busy for several important laws. “We still have time for forming the law like other international laws,” he said. For his part, President of Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists Ghazi Shayaa told IraqiNews.com “the syndicate has no idea about the reason behind the delay in approving the law. “The syndicate will host soon the Parliament’s Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani to discuss the reasons behind the postponement of approving the law,” he explained, stressing that approving the law has a special priority. SH (S)/SR 2