Amid crisis with Erbil, Baghdad launches Kurdish TV programming
Baghdad launches a Kurdish TV segment in an attempt to have direct contact with Kurdistan Region residents.
The federal government in Iraq is seeking to build bridges of communication between it and the population of the Kurdistan Region through news broadcasts and television programs in the Kurdish language, the language of the majority of the population in the Kurdistan Region.
After seeing that its statements and positions were being distorted by Kurdish channels, the Iraqi government found that it needed to address the Kurds in their own language. This prompted it to allocate airtime for news in the Kurdish language on Al-Iraqiya, the government’s official channel.
Mujahid Abu al-Hill, the head of the Iraqi Media Network, announced Oct. 17 that Al-Iraqiya will broadcast programs in the Kurdish language for two hours a day, which will be gradually increased in the future.
In a press statement to Al-Iraqiya, Hill said, “The Kurdish-language airtime will not remain limited to two hours, but [later] there will be a Kurdish channel broadcasting 24 hours a day from inside the capital, Baghdad.”
