Activities of Journalists Syndicate elections launched in its twenty-second term

BAGHDAD-INA

The legal committee supervising the elections of the Journalists Syndicate announced Friday the start of the elections activities in its twenty-second term.

 The Iraqi Journalists Syndicate held its twenty-second general election conference to elect the president and two deputies of the Syndicate of Journalists, members of the Syndicate's council, and the discipline and monitoring committees under the slogan (Iraq's journalists are the eyes of the people looking to a tomorrow of love and peace).

The head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, Muayyad al-Lami, said in his speech during the opening of the conference, which was attended by the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that "the Law to Protect Journalists has many advantages for those working in the press," calling on "journalists to expose the corrupt and the losers, and vows to defend the union for them."

 He stressed that "there is no imprisoned journalist, and that the Supreme Judicial Council is supportive of the press community and supportive of press freedom, and directed more than one directive that journalists may not be summoned until after informing the Journalists Syndicate."

 Al-Lami announced that "the Council of the Syndicate of Journalists will be dissolved after the end of its term.”

 For his part, the President of the International Federation of Journalists, Younes Mujahid, said: "The position of the International Federation of Journalists is clear despite all the crises that Iraq has gone through, and we consider freedom of the press must transcend all differences and we do not recognize any limits that impede the freedom of journalists."

 He added, "The syndicate must play its role for the freedom of journalists and work on laws regulating the press, and that the issue of killing journalists should not be closed until the criminals are punished."

 In turn, the Secretary-General of the Union of Arab Journalists, Khaled Miri, said: "The Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate is an ancient union with a great history," noting that "what the Syndicate has done and its  martyrs is evidence of its defense of freedoms and the unity of Iraq."