The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said that the media department of the Iraqi parliament prevented a group of media and journalists from entering the parliament building to cover the session of electing the President of the Republic.
A group of Iraqi journalists covering the Iraqi parliament’s sessions reported that the parliament prevented them from covering the session of electing the president on the pretext of “restricting coverage to a specific group of media”.
The media department of the House of Representatives prevented entry to the media group who had attended to cover the election session of the President of the Republic, including the Al-Mayadeen channel, according to its director, Abdullah Badran. Badran said during a phone call to the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights: "The media department of the House of Representatives informed us of the prevention of entering the session today”.
He added: "We are now in front of the door of the House of Representatives with a group of agencies and channels after the House of Representatives informed them that entry was restricted to a certain group of media".
Muhammad Imad, a correspondent of Baghdad Agency today, was also banned from entering. He said: "I sent an authorization in my name to enter the session, but the response was: (We apologize, you cannot enter for today)".
Imad contacted the media department and informed them that he needed to cover today's session. They told him that attendance will not be allowed for everyone, and only a specific group of local media will be allowed to attend, according to what he said.
Sabah Al-Lami, head of the Middle East services department at AP. said that “It’s not only that our agency could not enter the parliament building, but a group of journalists was at the gate of the intersection of legislation opposite Al-Rashid Hotel. I expect that what happened was not a ban, but a lack of coordination. Allowing entry was only from the car parking gate from the side of the General Secretariat building of the cabinet, and that was limited to holders of the entry card of the green area.
He added, "It was supposed that the entry would be from the two gates because many media people didn’t possess the card for entering the Green Zone".
