Hawlati (Kurdish for "citizen") is an independent Kurdish newspaper, published in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan and London. Tariq Fatih is the owner of the paper. Hawlati is a biweekly newspaper issued by Ranj Publishing House, published on Sundays and Wednesdays. The current editor is Kamal Rauf.The newspaper first appeared on 5 November 2000. The BBC referred to the launch of Hawlati as the birth of independent media in Iraq. One of the founders, Asos Hardi, is the son of the Kurdish poet Ahmad Hardi.Hawlati claims to be the first independent newspaper in the region since the fall of Saddam Hussein. To prove its transparency, the paper made a point of publishing its quarterly financial reports in the paper itself. The paper also had to cope with the lack of professional journalists in Ir