Baghdad: Prime Minister, Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani attended, today, Sunday, the central celebration held by the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate on the occasion of the 155th Iraqi Press Day.
During a speech he delivered, Al-Sudani welcomed the Iraqi and Arab journalistic presence, congratulated the anniversary of the founding of the Iraqi press, and praised its effective and fundamental role and presence across important historical stages, by archiving incidents and facts, as well as its role in spreading the state of national awareness among Iraqis in difficult times.
Al-Sudani recalled the martyrs of the Iraqi press, who were executed by the dictatorial regime, or who became martyrs due to terrorism and during the liberation battles against the terrorist ISIS gangs. He also recalled the martyrs of the press in Gaza, the resistance, who through their sacrifices exposed the brutal aggression and exposed its massacres against our steadfast Palestinian people.
The Prime Minister expressed the government’s keenness
to provide decent livelihoods for journalists, stressing that he directed two weeks ago to allocate a plot of land to establish a vertical residential complex for the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, within the land of the Jawharat Baghdad residential project, in Al-Zafaraniya area in Al-Rashid district, south of the capital. He also indicated the approval of the Council of Ministers on the draft law on the right to obtain information.
The following are the highlights of the Prime Minister’s speech:
The Iraqi press contributed to spreading culture, and its pages embraced important cultural debates that influenced the Arab cultural structure.
Free poetry was born in the pages of Iraqi newspapers, in addition to other creative stations such as theatre, cinema, and art, as the press contributed to improving and renewing it.
The most important influence of the press, in turn, is represented in the political conditions and events witnessed in the history of Iraq.
The press has proven to be closer to people’s conc
erns and a decisive and influential factor in educating public opinion against attempts to domesticate it or steal its freedom and thought.
The dictatorial regime executed, imprisoned and arrested many journalists, and many of them were forced to emigrate.
With Iraq’s freedom from dictatorship, our journalism has become an essential contributor to building a free, pluralistic Iraq in which everyone enjoys freedom, dignity, and respect for human rights.
The press has a role in defending the new Iraq and exposing terrorism, as well as its role during the major battles that our security forces fought against terrorism.
From 2003 to the present day, the press has presented convoys of martyrs and wounded who sacrificed their lives for the sake of Iraq.
Our government was keen to provide all possibilities for success for the professional national press, out of its belief in the value of journalistic work and its national role.
The government worked to provide a safe environment to ensure that journalists can
perform their role without harassment or abuse.
We proceeded with determination to complete the requirements of the draft law on the right to access information, after the Council of Ministers voted on it.
Today we are proud that there is no journalist detained or prisoner of conscience.
There are platforms that harm the professionalism of journalism, and work to poison the atmosphere and mislead public opinion, exploiting the space of freedom, and harming the free, responsible press, before harming the state and its institutions.
The national professional press is our main partner in building the state. Through it, we explore flaws, corruption, and mismanagement, and convey people’s concerns.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency