Iraq's Kurdistan bans media from PKK bases

Baghdad: Iraq's northern Kurdistan region has banned journalists from travelling to rebel bases of the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), officials said on Monday.

"We will not allow journalists or the media to send any reporter ... to where the PKK are, whether on the border or the area of Qandil mountains," said Jamal Abdullah, spokesman for Kurdistan Regional Government.

He said media reports had led to an "acceleration of the crisis with Turkey". "We will try in different ways to calm the situation," he said.

The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said in a statement that it rejected "random decisions" by the Kurdish government, adding that authorities had been "harassing" journalists and hindering their work.