Bafel Jalal Talabani, President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), issued a message on the anniversary of Kurdish journalism and said, “We have provided a free environment and asked journalists to be brave and free to criticize us.”.
The PUK president congratulated all Kurdish journalists on the 126th anniversary of Kurdish journalism and announced, “We would like to thank all the tireless writers who have tried to advance the process of journalism and raise awareness in the past.”.
Talabani stressed that “the PUK believes in freedom of the press and the right to access information, and in any way against the restriction of freedom and violation of the rights of journalists, and considers it a serious threat to democracy and the image of the Kurdistan Region, which, unfortunately, has faced strong criticism in the past due to several such cases.”.
He concluded his message by saying that “we have supported journalists in every way in the past, and we have provided a free environment and asked journalists to be brave and free to criticize us. We grow with criticism and look at ourselves. We will continue to defend the rights of journalists in the future.”.
