Report: Freedoms in Iraq: An Increasing Repressive Legal Net

In December, 2011, IREX, in partnership with the Centre for Law and Democracy, published the report Freedoms in Iraq: an Increasingly Repressive Legal Net, detailing five pieces of legislation affecting the freedoms of assembly and expression in Iraq. The Journalists Rights Law is the only one passed into law as of August 2011, while the other four – the Commission of Media and Communication Law, Informatics Crimes Law, Political Parties Law and the Law of Expression, Assembly, and Peaceful Protest – still remain as drafts.

For the full summary, continue reading below. Or, click here for the report.

If all five laws pass, they will encompass a wide array of Iraqi civil society  including: media content, establishment of political parties, applications for assembly or demonstrations and restrictions regarding such events, the regulating system for broadcasting, and special rules for journalist.

At the forefront of “problematic issues” surrounding the five laws are the focus on moral issues, religious hatred or criticism, and public order and terrorism. The ambiguity of the laws allows for excessive government intervention, and many of the laws fail to meet the standards of international law involving restrictions on freedom of expression.

The report suggests measures to curb the excessive powers granted to authorities to approve, refuse, or obstruct the exercise of freedom of assembly or the engaging in expressive activity. Additionally, the report proposes a Right to Information, as one of the laws restricts journalists’ access to information deemed harmful to public order. Along with the rights to access information, there needs to be transparent procedures in place for requests of information, a comprehensive list of reasons for denial, and an appeals procedure for denied request. The relative ease of accessing information should go hand-in-hand with proactive dissemination of key information by the public authority, including: information about its programs and activities.

The laws currently do not protect broadcast media and radio from “unreasonable and excessive sanctions.” The law needs to be clear and detailed regarding the use of broadcast policy, and also in the parameters of the powers and responsibilities of an independent regulatory body, accountable to the public through the legislator.

The Journalist Law (only current enacted law) attempts to create a number of special protections for journalists. One of the shortfalls of the law pertains to special direct benefits from the state; this in turn could allow soft reporting on governmental activities as reporters would not want to “bite the hand that feeds them.” While providing journalists with a system to protect their sources, a formal system of accreditation is not in place and any individual without a “full time journalism job” is excluded from the protections of the law.

While the Iraqi government has made substantial leaps in democratic reform since the downfall of Saddam Hussein, this report indicates there is still are improvements to be made. The five laws are positive examples of seeking to provide validity to the constitution, but many of the provisions are looking back to the influences of the Hussein era by failing to adhere to international standards. If the five laws are adopted as are, it would cause a “massive backsliding in terms of respect for the freedoms of assembly and expression….[and] its progress towards democracy would be halted.”