The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday voiced deep concern following a ruling by a court in Duhok, Iraq, that ordered Kurdish journalist Omed Baroshky to remain in prison for an additional six months.

In commenting on his predicament, CPJ Levant program coordinator Doja Daoud stated: “Omed Baroshky has already faced retaliation for his reporting. We urge Iraqi Kurdish authorities to stop criminalizing the work of opposition journalists and ensure that they can operate without fear of reprisal.”

The latest ruling applied a previously suspended six-month sentence from December 2021, issued against Baroshky, a prominent freelance journalist known for his bold criticism of local authorities and investigative reporting on corruption in Iraqi Kurdistan. The court justified the reinstatement by claiming he had violated the terms of the suspension, which initially mandated him to refrain from committing any offense for a period of three years. After Baroshky reported on then-Kurdish regional lawmaker Mala Ihsan Rekani’s non-compliance with COVID-19 quarantine procedures, Rekani filed a lawsuit in response, ultimately leading to Baroshky’s 2021 sentencing under the Kurdistan region’s Misuse of Communication Devices law.

Article 2 of the statute imposes imprisonment and fines for “misusing cell phones and email to threaten someone, use profanities, spread misinformation, disclose private conversations or share images counter to the public’s values, or take any other action that might harm someone’s integrity or honor or motivate a crime or an immoral act, or share private information even if true.” The statute does not explicitly set out a threshold for determining offenses that would warrant a fine under this provision, allowing for a collapse in the distinction between objective harm and perceived impropriety.

Also referred to as Law 6, the statute’s official goal is to effectively tackle online harassment. The vague wording of the law, however,  has allowed prosecutors to exploit loopholes to silence critics and intimidate journalists into watering down their work to the point of inaccuracy.

Many commentators have asserted that journalists in the Kurdistan region of Iraq face gross human rights violations, with arbitrary detention, beatings, and the grossly unfair trials of journalists being the norm. Baroshky’s situation is one of many cases where a pattern of repression by authorities continues to undermine the right to freedom of expression in a country where the two largest political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, had collectively employed strategies to silence members of the press.

Many jurists and rights groups advocate for clear lawmaking in order to protect due process. The fundamental right to freedom of expression is enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).