Promoting freedom of expression, freedom of the media, and protecting human rights while recovering crises
Project name: Promoting freedom of expression, freedom of the media, and protecting human rights while recovering from crises.
Project implementation period: one year from 6/1/2022 to 5/31/2023.
Project implementation location: Kurdistan Region governorates.
Target groups: journalists, social media activists, civil society organizations, the Journalists Syndicate.
The cost of implementing the project: 52,533 dollars, fifty-two thousand five hundred and thirty-three dollars.
Funding body: The Italian Bridge to, Organization (UPP), and the Obelisk Organization. With support from the European Union.
Project goals:
1- Promoting freedom of expression and freedom of the media in the Kurdistan Region.
2- Limiting violations against journalists and protecting their rights.
3- Training journalists on methods of professional coverage of events and crises.
4- Supporting young and women journalists.
The implementation of the project included the following activities and events:
- Signing a memorandum of understanding and cooperation between the STEP Organization for Democracy and Elections and the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate, for coordination and cooperation regarding methods of protecting and training journalists.
- Signing a memorandum of cooperation and understanding between STEP and a number of non-governmental organizations working in the field of democracy, freedom of expression and media, and human rights.
- Establishing a call center to record cases of violations of journalists’ rights, and registering their complaints to defend them before the courts of the Kurdistan Region, in cooperation with the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate.
- Organizing a questionnaire to poll the opinions of 100 journalists and 300 citizens who own social networking sites in the Kurdistan Region, on indicators of freedom of expression and freedom of the media in the Kurdistan Region, and announcing its results in a press conference held in the city of Duhok. - Training 45 journalists and social media owners in the Kurdistan Region on how to organize advocacy campaigns in the media regarding reducing violence and not disturbing civil peace, and ensuring that they are not exposed to legal issues with state institutions.
- Organizing an education and information campaign about freedom of expression and the press, through the organization’s social media outlets, which included 20 live broadcast programs on radio and Facebook on a weekly basis, and publishing 40 text messages about the principles of freedom of expression and the press, in addition to designing and producing 5 video graphics about the right to freedom of expression. And disseminated in the media, this campaign continued for 10 ten months.
- Receiving and evaluating the journalistic productions of a number of young journalists, both male, and female, on freedom of expression, freedom of the media, and human rights, and then selecting 15 of the best productions, collecting them, and designing them to be printed in a book, which aimed to encourage young people in the topics of media freedom and human rights.
In addition to organizing many visits with representatives of a number of non-governmental organizations that signed the memorandum of understanding, to a number of securities, supervisory, and cultural authorities related to the issue of freedom of expression and media.
