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On the International Day to End Impunity, UNESCO holds a round table in Baghdad to protect journalists

On the 4th of November, UNESCO Iraq office, in collaboration with Iraqi Communication and Media Commission, organized a National Roundtable in Baghdad to discuss the issue of impunity. The roundtable sheds light on the mechanisms of journalists鈥 safety and prosecution to bring justice to murdered journalists and review the challenges and achievements of the fight against impunity in Iraq.
CMC hosted the event of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (IDEI), which was attended by the Members of the Iraqi National Committee of Safety of Journalists and Issue of Impunity, and media outlets as well as several journalists who have been attacked in Baghdad during the October's protests.
The Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice answered the questions of the safety committee and the media representatives while the main question was the (Distrust and Fear) with around 90 attacks against the journalists in one month as the Committee of journalists鈥 safety registered via their monitoring tools.
Ministry of Interior representative said that the reason is there are many unknown committed violations against the journalists and the reluctance of journalists to report or sue the attackers. The participants shared a call to the international community to support Iraqi journalism community raising awareness and strengthening the capacities of key actors in the national committee of journalist鈥檚 safety.
The roundtable was chaired by Dhea Subhee, UNESCO CI Associate Officer, who was supported by the Head of Information and Communication Monitoring Department Ahmed Al Asadi, Special Investigation Unit of Journalists cases in MoI Raad Hamdan, Ministry of Justice Director-General Kamel Ameen; Representative of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate Hassan Abodi and the media outlets representatives.
#keeptruthlive was the theme of the event and all invitees called for justice to the Iraqi journalists killed since 2004 and to stop the violence against journalists that started since 1st of October 2019.
The National Committee of Journalists safety of Iraq show their readiness to start working on the Director-General of UNESCO report on killings of journalists and the issue of impunity for 2020. The most recent report that was issued in (2019) presents an analysis of cases condemned by the Director-General. Based on the information provided by committee members, the report also takes stock of the judicial investigations undertaken into each of the murders recorded by UNESCO from 2006 to 2019.