SULAIMANI — The security forces in Erbil shut down the local NRT office on Thursday (August 20), escorting journalists off the premises and chaining the doors shut.

NRT reporter Hersh Qadir said that police did not give any legal justification for the closure, other than that they had orders.

He added that the police informed the staff in Erbil that they are not allowed to work and that, if they attempt to continue reporting, their equipment will be seized.

It comes after an early morning raid of NRT’s office in Duhok, which remains closed and guarded by the security forces, and the detention of two NRT journalists in Duhok, one of whom remains in custody.

The Metro Center for Journalists' Rights and Advocacy said in a statement that the closure of NRT’s offices and the arrest of its reporters is “the hallmark of intolerance for dissent, of the efforts of the authority to restrict press freedom.”

“Now is not the era of one TV [channel], one newspaper, and one radio. That era has passed, all people have their own radio, TV, and newspaper and they are all able to disseminate their voices like NRT,” it said, adding that, if the work of that channel is prohibited, the people themselves will build thousands of NRTs and carry on the task of reporting on ongoing protests in the Kurdistan Region.

“People want clean drinking water, electricity, a decent life, and a better system. Their dignities to be preserved,” it said.

“When will [the authority] understand that oppression and violating people’s freedom is not the solution?”

(NRT Digital Media)