Following a wave of protests, the Minister of Culture and Youth has finally canceled a directive that had handed the government over the criteria for media content.

The (KRG) Minister of Culture and Youth Hama Hama Saeed has officially repealed the directive number (1) of 2023 on (regulation of media work in the Kurdistan Region).

In the middle of last year, the directive sparked a wave of protests from journalists and writers against Masrour Barzani's cabinet, which, along with the decline in livelihoods and services, took measures to restrict freedom of the press. Some of the criticism was directed at the PUK, as the minister of culture belongs to the PUK.

Dr. Saman Fawzi, a university professor and expert in media law, pointed out the weaknesses in the guidelines of the Ministry of Culture and said, "The directive contains many dangerous points for journalists and media outlets. It is not even useful for amendment, so it should be rejected".

Weaknesses of the Ministry of Culture's guidelines:

• Because there is no parliament to pass a law to regulate the work of the media, the government has taken the opportunity to issue this guideline.

• However, there must be an independent committee to issue these guidelines, not belonging to the government.

• In the guidelines, the title is one thing, and the content is something else. There are many problems in terms of form. There are ethical issues, but they are treated as laws in this guideline, which is a problem.

• According to Article 9, this directive does not cover the field of journalism and journalists, but why later does it define journalists? We do not understand what it means.

• Licensing issue: France has not had a journalism license for more than 100 years. Kurdistan was the last place that denied the license in the journalism law. But now the directive says the license is under the authority of the Ministry of Culture, but after the approval of the Ministry of Interior, which it creates many problems.

• There are many taxes and fees: In Article 7, the satellite (40) million dinars, Television (20) million, Fees of broadcasting companies (30) million dinars, This is a blow to the free media that cannot afford that amount.

• Article 4, paragraph 4, deals with defamation, insult and harassment.

 Nobody knows what they mean by annoying? These concepts carry different interpretations.

• Article 4, paragraph 17 states that the criteria for media content are issued by the Media and Information Office of the Kurdistan Regional Government. That is, the government tells the media what to do and what to publish.

• Article 11 states that a board of representatives of the Ministry of Interior, Culture and the Media and Information department shall be formed to implement this directive. That is, the government itself implements the guidelines on journalists.

• In Article 13, paragraph, discusses the closure of electronic publishing tools and social media pages. This is a very severe punishment, It is like an execution for journalism.

• Article 12, paragraph 12, states that the disclosure of government documents is not authorized for publication, that is, no government documents should be published in the future, all those documents related to the corruption cases in the government should not be published.

• In the guidelines of the Ministry of Culture, the treatment for shadow media, those whose background is unknown and the character behind it is unknown, insults and attacks this and that, is not addressed, which it should have had a solution to those issues.

• Between rejecting, canceling and amending this guideline of the Ministry of Culture, I am in favor of rejecting it completely because you do not know where to change it.