Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with Iraqi officials on the free speech of journalists working in the Erbil region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
We condemn acts of intimidation against journalists and media organisations, and the suppression of information including the internet. I have raised my concerns over restrictions on media freedom in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani. In the last few weeks, our Ambassador in Baghdad, and our Consul General in Erbil, has also discussed these issues with their interlocutors in the Kurdistan Regional Government.