On December 3rd, Metro’s team received Hemn Mahmood, Director General of Zoom Channel, Mahdi Abdullah, Operations Director of Zoom Channel.

We discussed the steps to reorganize the channel’s work and the broad support from international organizations and countries' envoys in the Kurdistan Region for their freedom.

We also discussed the environment for freedom of expression and Metro Center’s preparations for the publication of both the situation of press freedom and Freedom of Expression (Network 19) reports. 2025 was a year for the expansion of the means of suppressing free and different voices, including all measures of violence against freedom of the press, closure of channels, restriction of civil workspace, violence against demonstrations, obstacles to journalists' work in covering demonstrations, all occupying a lot of space.

Both sides agreed that the repression of media freedom and the development of tools to control the media through political pressure and money have coincided with the concealment of much of the information that serves the public interest.

Both sides condemned all forms of violence against journalists, saying that attitudes and reactions vary according to political positions, which is dangerous and encourages violence against journalists.

Metro coordinator briefed on his meetings with UN decision-makers on the situation of human rights defenders, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, the formation of organizations, human trafficking and the fight against terrorism, which were held last week in Turkey.