CENTRAL NEWS
According to NRT staff, members of the security forces damaged some equipment and seized other items. The office has been closed as security forces are still occupying the premises as of 3 a.m.
The security forces, which are affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), did not immediately present a court order permitting the raid, the news outlet informed.
NRT has been heavily covering the protests in Sulaimani governorate that began on Wednesday. Demonstrators have been voicing their anger at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) handling of deteriorating economic conditions, lack of basic services, and the government’s failure to pay public sector salaries on time and in full.
The channel’s offices in Erbil and Duhok were closed without a court order for two months this autumn after it covered protests in both those governorates.
Earlier on Sunday, protesters burned the local offices of the PUK in Piramagrun town and gathered outside the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Guards at the KDP office fired live ammunition into the air in an attempt to disperse demonstrators.
On Thursday, the security forces in Sulaimani broke up a protest in the main bazaar, wounding twenty-five protesters, according to medical officials.
In 2011, NRT’s offices in Sulaimani were set on fire by a group of armed men because of its coverage of that winter’s massive anti-corruption protests. No one has yet been prosecuted for the arson.
Kurdistan Region sinks lower than Iraq on world Freedom of Press index
