Sulaymaniyah Governorate witnessed, on Saturday evening, the opening ceremony of the memorial for the martyrs of the Iraqi press during the past twenty years, in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani, President of the Arab Journalists Federation, Head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate Muayyad al-Lami, Head of the Iraqi Media Network Karim Hammadi, the Governor of Sulaymaniyah, and a number of Baghdad journalists, academics and media professionals.
Head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate Muayyad al-Lami said during the opening ceremony of the memorial in Azadi Park in the center of Sulaymaniyah, “I am proud to be present today in Sulaymaniyah Governorate and to participate in honoring the Iraqi journalists who sacrificed for freedom of opinion.”
He added, “More than 530 martyrs have fallen in twenty years, and we have more than 60 martyrs of journalists of both genders who fell during press coverage while fighting against ISIS terrorists, while they were carrying out t
heir sacred duty and conveying the truth of events,” stressing the support of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate for the Kurdistan Regional Government in order to serve the press and journalists and ensure their rights.”
In turn, Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan region Qubad Talabani, the owner of the idea and supervisor of building the memorial, said that “the martyrs of the press are our heroes and we will not forget their courage.”
He added, “Despite recording 551 martyrs of journalists in this memorial, the last of whom were the two journalists (Hero and Golestan) who were killed in the past three weeks, we hope that they will be the last martyrs of the press.”
He explained, “There are two reasons behind our desire for the memorial to be in Azadi Park, the first is because the blood of our sons was shed by the Baath regime and they were martyred here, and therefore the late President Jalal Talabani established a platform for freedom in this place, and decided that criticism and expression of opinion
would be “With courage, placing this monument in this place was the best choice.”
He added, “There is no healthy society without freedom, and we Kurds have made many sacrifices for that freedom, so it is our duty to protect it and we owe these martyrs as we owe our other martyrs in Iraq, where the names of all martyrs have been recorded,” appreciating the efforts of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate and other media outlets for their cooperation in achieving this achievement.
He continued, “In conjunction with the construction of this memorial, a website was created to document the names, photos, identities, belongings and biographies of the martyred journalists.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency