Kurdish Media Watchdog (CHMK); is a not-for-profit, non-governmental, and an independent media aid organization. It was also founded by several Kurdish academicians in November 2017. This organization aims to the watchdog, monitoring, evaluating, reporting and studying weakness and invasion cases of professional standards into convergent media contents and Kurdish journalism practices. In the beginning, it is focusing on enhancing media professionalism and raising awareness of the human rights and democratization process of the Iraqi Kurdish society and its residents who have been ignored their human rights or unprofessionally violated them by Kurdish media organizations and their workers into private lives and other civil rights.
What’s more, CHMK covers several projects, including (1) monitoring Kurdish media contents; (2) researching; (3) surveying; (4) training and (5) printing new media sources, such as a particular journal and books. As well as, CHMK’s activities gradually extended to providing media aid in other parts of the country in order to gathering and displaying professional and actual agenda to re-correct and recognize democratic media content regulation and liberal journalistic styles as well. To do this crucial aim, CHMK primarily and intensively is seeking on gathering latest data about the developments and challenges of the media landscape in the KRI. Then publishing gained data, studies, projects, and other activities online through developing a productive online website of www.CHMK.org for building a media aid network between media producers and consumers. This website can be used as an original source to access truthful information about up-to-date Kurdish media progress.
Aims and methodological approaches of the organization
First: the general aims
To build a professional and modern media in order to urgent regulation and better production of Kurdish journalism in a balanced and responsible way. It also focuses on social peace and disseminating forgiveness among Kurdish society to live together and accepting their different ideas and backgrounds. The working of the organization is obviously in line with the democratic principles, freedom of expression, media freedom, international declarations of human rights, and the ethical codes of the journalists’ international federation.
Second: the specific aims
- To monitor and evaluate the latest developments of the Kurdish media productions in terms of content and quality in each of printing, broadcasting and convergent media.
- To provide trainings for the new generation of Kurdish journalists which includes the styles and principles of media professionalism in terms of laws and ethics in journalism practices.
- To monitor and analyze the key phenomena and effects of Kurdish media contents and its quality.
- To assess the extent levels of access to information, freedom of expression and media freedom. In addition to protecting individual’s right to privacy, and following up to all types of violation that might produce by the Kurdish media and its intrusion into private lives of people, especially during tensions, political conflicts, and the general election campaigns.