The Iraqi Journalists' Right Defence Association, established in 2004, is a non-governmental independent association which deals with establishing freedom of expression and the press in Iraq, providing journalists with legal assistance and establishing a culture of human rights according to international law. It is located in Baghdad and has many branches all over Iraq. The association's responsibilities and duties are:

• to observe the violations against Iraqi journalists and submit monthly. quarterly and annual reports abou tthem and send them to the international regional associations concerned with human rights;
• to provide Iraqi journalists with legal assistance by empowering lawyers for them;
• to provide the families of murdered journalists with financial support;
• to provide solidarity with journalists who face difficulties and improve their abilities in order to become human rights defenders;
• to provide assistance to injured and displaced journalists through the support of international and regional associations.

"In its statement no. 2 in 2007, the Association expressed its concern at the continuous violations of freedom of opinion and expression and press freedom in Iraq, which came to a head during the last three months. Iraqi journalists have been exposed to killing, kidnapping, detention, attacks, threats and aggression, in addition to preventing them from covering the events and issuing unjust judgments against several Iraqi independent newspapers. This caused a clear violation of all international covenants and conventions, especially a violation of the right to life and personal safety. There is also targeting journalists by organised crime which badly affected the press performance and its role in conveying facts to the public.

The Association mentioned that the delays by the security authorities in conducting formal investigations about the violations largely contributed to the increase in assassinations of journalists, giving the chance to the murderers to escape punishment. This helped the armed groups to use horrible terrorist tools that intensify the chaos such as killing and burning the body of Iman Yousif Abdullah, a journalist, with her husband in their car in Nineveh on April 11, 2007.

The Association mentioned that journalists are often detained in an aggressive way and according to the mood of the Iraqi forces and the multinational forces. It attracted attention to the fact of the immunity of the multinational forces and their failure to comply with Iraqi laws . In addition the effective emergency laws are a great challenge to freedom of expression in Iraq. There are also several pending cases of journalists who are still detained in the prisons of the multinational forces or the Iraqi forces. Detainees suffer from difficult human and social situations and their families are exposed to harassment when they apply for an interview with them.

Some of the detained journalists during the last three months are Abbas al-Musawi, the correspondent of al-Sabah newspaper in Diwanniyah, Ahmed Mohammed Rasheed Meera, the editor-in-chief of Alfain magazine issued in Sulaymaniyah, Hassan Shaheed al-Azzawi, the correspondent of al-Sabah newspaper in Wasit and Sabah al-Bazi, the correspondent of Reuters. The US forces transferred Mohammed Adnan Meshawash al-Ka’bi who was detained at Baghdad International Airport prison in Baghdad to Boka prison in Basrah, the south of Iraq.

The Association highlights the continuous violations journalists, especially women journalists, are exposed to in Iraq. Women working in this field face risks and harassment which restrict their work and make them prefer office work to field work. The Association gave the statistics of violations in the second quarter of 2007 as follows: no. of journalists killed is 24 for the period April – June 2007; no. of assassination attempts is 4 (some of them are still getting medical treatment); no. of threats is 12; no. of harassments is 4; no. of attacks is 2; no. of aggressions is 4. In conclusion, we call for the following: 

• The Iraqi government should urgently intervene to establish an office for investigating the crimes committed against journalists;
• Taking effective and decisive measures to stop the violence against journalists;
• Enacting a law that enables journalists to have free access to information and news transparently;
• Preventing the detention of journalists only after the issue of judicial memos;
• Working on an actual application of Article 38/first/second of the Iraqi constitution and the international laws and covenants;
• Working on the issue of a resolution by which foreign forces are prevented from detaining journalists or attacking media outlets;
• Compensating the families of the kidnapped journalists;
• Enacting a law by which detention of journalists are prevented because of publication."