Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has announced that he will sue Hawlati, one of Iraqi Kurdistan’s two independent newspapers for publishing the summary of an article I wrote that criticized the Iraqi Kurdish leadership for abusing press freedom by harassing independent newspapers with frivolous lawsuits. Furthering the irony, Talabani will use Article 433 of the Iraqi Criminal Code, a hold over from the Baathist era, which equates almost all criticism of leadership, even if true, with defamation. On December 20, 2007, the Iraqi Kurdish parliament had moved to overturn this rule, but was itself overruled by the Kurdish leadership.