Iraq's Kurdistan bans media from PKK bases

Denying charges it has detained several reporters, Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region has banned journalists from traveling to Kurdish rebel bases, officials said on Monday, accusing the media of aggravating the crisis with Turkey.

"We will not allow journalists or the media to send any reporter ... to where the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK rebels are based), whether on the border or the area of Qandil Mountains," said Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesman Jamal Abdullah.

Abdullah justified the decision by saying media reports had led to an "acceleration of the crisis with Turkey". "We will try in different ways to calm the situation."

Turkey has massed 100,000 troops backed by tanks, artillery and planes on Iraq's border and threatened to launch a major military operation to crush PKK fighters.

Iraqi President Jalal al-Talabani, a Kurd, said last week that a limited invasion appeared inevitable.

Abdullah, however, denied accusations from media watchdog, the Iraqi Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, that Kurdish security forces had detained several journalists.

The Iraqi non-governmental organization said a team working for al-Hurra television, including correspondent Ali al-Yasi, was detained in the Zakho area near the Turkish border.

It said a Japanese television reporter had also been detained in the Bativa border area but did provide any more details.

Journalists have flocked to Iraq's northern border as tensions have grown over attacks on Turkish soldiers by PKK rebels operating from Iraq's mountainous north.

The KRG has taken steps to block supplies to the rebels, but
Ankara is pressing Iraq to do more.

The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said in a statement that it rejected "random decisions" by the Kurdish government, adding that authorities had been "harassing" journalists and hindering their work.

The Iraqi Association of Defense of Journalists' Rights, another non-governmental organization, said an order preventing journalists from going to border regions had been issued by the Kurdistan president's office on Nov. 14.

Abdullah said no such order had been issued.