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Al-Isbooeia Magazine and its Reporters Banned by Parliament

In a move to curb the freedom of expression, Iraqi parliament decided to ban distributing al-Isbooeia magazine and to prevent its reporters to cover the parliament sessions, this move comes after the publication of the magazine to a cartoon understood as a humiliation to the Islamic woman. Speaker of the parliament Mahmood al-Mishhadani approved the decision.

Mustafa al-Kadhimi, head of the management council's board of the independent al-Isbooeia magazine, told the  journalistic freedoms observatory (JFO) that "the parliament speaker has approved the proposal of the MP Ali al-Allak to ban distributing the magazine and to prevent its reporters to cover the sessions of the parliament because it published a cartoon criticizing the women bombers recruited by al-Qaida organization in Iraq".

A source inside the parliament, preferred to be nameless, told the JFO that "the parliament speaker and some MPs have taken that decision because they understood the cartoon as a humiliation to the Islamic women because it depicted that woman dressed in to Islamic fashion".

Mohammed Abdul Jabbar al-Shabot, editor-in-chief of al-Isbooeia magazine told the JFO that" it is not the issue of the parliament to interfere in the freedom of expression and that the cartoon represents the women recruited by al-Qaida organization; it  humiliates and condemns al-Qaida only".

Al-Shabot, talking from Kuwait, added "I wonder how the MPS could not understand that hint in a time they announce their war against al-Qaida in Iraq; our aim is to help them".

The JFO cautiously looks at such decisions that restrict the freedom of expression and considers it dangerous to take such decisions based on personal backgrounds. It hopes the parliament to protect the Iraqi constitution and to support the free expression.

 

 

 

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