The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) issued an alert and demanded the KDP public forces the immediate release of Journalist Zubêr Bradosti.

The CPJ said in a written statement: "Kurdish Peshmerga forces should immediately disclose any charges against journalist Zuber Bradosti or else release him from custody."

On July 21, in Bradost, Iraqi Kurdistan, members of the Peshmerga Halgurd Unit military forces, which are affiliated with the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), summoned Bradosti, a reporter for the news website Roj News, for questioning and then detained him and transferred him to Masif, a town near Erbil.

Security forces have not disclosed any charges against Bradosti or let his family contact him.

"Summoning and detaining a journalist without stating the reason for the arrest is more common in dictatorships than in beacons of democracy as the Kurdish authorities like to describe themselves," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado.

"We call - Delgado added - on the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to either disclose charges or release Zuber Bradosti immediately and let him do his job freely and without fear of reprisal."

Bradosti was previously arrested on March 17, when Asayish security forces, also aligned with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, detained him following his reporting on Turkish airstrikes in the area, and released him on bail several days later.