A journalist from La Libre Belgique and a freelance photographer expelled from Iraq

La Libre Belgique journalist Christophe Lamfalussy and freelance photographer Johanna de Tessières, reporting in Iraq, were arrested on Sunday by the army and expelled from the country, Christophe Lamfalussy told the Belga agency upon his return to Belgian soil. . The Professional Association of Journalists (AJP) denounces an obstacle to freedom of the press.

The reporter and the photographer, who know Iraq well, were traveling to Mount Sinjar in the north of the country, under the command of the Iraqi army and various militias, as part of a report on the Yazidi community , a persecuted religious minority.

Arrested at a checkpoint on Sunday, the two Belgians, with valid visas, were interrogated for two hours and threatened by the Iraqi army, without suffering physical violence, underlined Christophe Lamfalussy. “They accused us of having taken pictures of armed people and of contributing to the financing of the PKK (Workers’ Party of Kurdistan, editor’s note), which is obviously false“, he added.

The journalist and the photographer were served with a ban on access to Iraqi territory “to eternal life“, once more specified Christophe Lamfalussy, while the two Belgians returned”of an area that is completely beyond the control of the army“.

Serious obstacle to freedom of the press and information

For the AJP, it is a “serious impediment to freedom of the press and information“, affirmed its secretary general, Martine Simonis, to the Belga agency. Iraq occupies the 172nd place out of 180 in the 2022 ranking of Reporters without Borders on the freedom of the press.