As Iraq Tries to Chill Critics, Its Newest Target Is Social Media

Haider Hamdani, a journalist in southern Iraq who covers corruption, has been acquitted in eight cases, but eight others are still pending. One was brought this spring by the governor of Basra, who offered to drop the case if Mr. Hamdani apologized and disavowed what he had written.

Mr. Hamdani, who had written about corruption in the purchase of heavy machinery and ambulances in Basra and named those who had profited, refused. He was detained, and the judge set bail at 50 million Iraqi dinars, about $37,600. He receives threatening phone calls almost every day, he said. “I get anonymous messages saying, ‘Shut up, leave these subjects alone or your life will be in danger, and you have kids.’”

Many of the legal actions rely on Iraq’s 1969 penal code, according to lawyers familiar with the cases, including a criminal ban on “insulting another person” or “hurting his feelings” as well as laws against “insulting” various government officials or entities. The Iraqi Constitution, written in 2005 with Western input, guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press but also says any public expression should not “violate public order and morality,” and t does not define those terms.

Dissent has also been suppressed by more violent methods, including kidnappings, beatings and killings, carried out by masked men driving civilian vehicles. The government often says they are rogue groups posing as militias, while the State Department report refers to them as “paramilitary militias.”

In February, Jassim al-Asadi, a well-known advocate for the Iraqi marshes, which are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, said he was kidnapped by an armed group and tortured after saying that Turkey and Iran were withholding water needed to keep the marshes alive. “I thought I would be killed,” he said. “If it had not been for my relatives and my tribe and the people who spoke up for me, I would be dead.”