Middle East & North Africa

  

CPJ joins call for Egypt to end its persecution of journalists, civil society leaders

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 14 other organizations in calling on Egyptian authorities today to halt the persecution of journalists, press freedom advocates, and civil society leaders. Restrictive measures have included travel bans, asset freezes, and the re-opening of a five-year-old investigation into the foreign funding of human rights organizations.

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Copies of Jordanian newspapers. During a CPJ mission there in February, the country's journalists said conditions for the press are deteriorating. (CPJ/Jason Stern)

Mission Journal: Rise in journalist arrests tarnishes Jordan’s image as reformist

The phone call came just as our conversation about the escalating crackdown on Jordanian media hit its stride. Lina Ejeilat, the co-founder of the news website 7iber (pronounced hebber), apologized and said she had to take the call. It was 7iber’s lawyer and it was important. For years the website had fought against a requirement…

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Karma Khayat, pictured left in Al-Jadeed's newsroom. A conviction against her by the Special Tribunal of Lebanon has been overturned. (AP/Hussein Malla)

A missed opportunity at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

On March 8, the Appeals Panel of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon reversed the September 18 conviction of Karma Khayat, a journalist who had been ordered to pay a €10,000 (USD$11,064) fine because her channel broadcast interviews with confidential witnesses.

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CPJ joins call to renew Iran special rapporteur mandate

The Committee to Protect Journalists has joined 34 other organizations in calling on the U.N. Human Rights Council to vote in favor of renewing the mandate of the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The vote is scheduled to take place during the 31st session of the…

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Syrians protest the killing and torture of women by President Assad's regime in 2011. The blogger Tal al-Mallohi remains in jail in Syria despite a court ordering her release. (AP/Mohammad Hannon)

On International Women’s Day, CPJ recognizes nine female journalists jailed for their work

Coverage of protests and riots. Revelations of official corruption and graft. Major natural disasters. Investigations into deplorable living conditions. These are some of the important issues journalists cover in their role as the Fourth Estate.

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Issa Saharkhiz, in an undated family photo. The freelance journalist was sentenced to one year in prison the day after being freed. (Mehdi Saharkhiz)

‘Prison is the equivalent of a death sentence for him,’ son of journalist jailed in Iran says

The son of imprisoned Iranian journalist Issa Saharkhiz says his father’s health has deteriorated and he has lost a worrying amount of weight since being sent to Evin prison last November. In an interview with CPJ, Mehdi Saharkhiz said his father, who is due in court this week, has been treated poorly.

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Pictures of filmmaker Naji Jerf are held up at his funeral in Gaziantep in December. Syrian media activists based in Turkey say the murder of Jerf and two other journalists makes the country feels less secure. (STR/AFP)

For journalists fleeing Islamic State, Turkey ‘is as dangerous as Syria’

For the past two years, activists and journalists seeking refuge from Islamic State repression in Raqqa would take sanctuary across the border in southern Turkey, setting up safe houses and offices, and darting back to Syria regularly with camera equipment and other vital supplies. But that sanctuary is now under threat.

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From Charlie Hebdo in Paris to bloggers in Bangladesh, extremists target press

Thursday marks one year since two gunmen burst into the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and opened fire. Over the following year, CPJ documented the deaths of 28 journalists who were killed for their work by Islamic militant groups such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. This StoryMap charts the deadly attacks that took…

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A young Syrian journalist carries a camera and a gun on February 9, 2014, in Aleppo. (AFP/Aleppo Media Center/Mohammed Wesam)

The militarization of the press in Syria

Ahmed Abu al-Hamza, “Software” as he was known by his friends, stood behind the camera on November 6 as a gunman explained how rebel forces took Tel Sukayk, a strategic hilltop north of Hama, from government forces. Suddenly the camera’s sound recorder picked up the faint thud of a mortar shell firing in the distance.…

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Taoufik Bouachrine in 2009 (AFP)

Amid wave of defamation cases, CPJ joins call for Morocco to drop charges against press

New York, November 13, 2015–CPJ has joined Free Press Unlimited and seven other organizations in a statement of support for seven Moroccan journalists and human rights defenders who will face trial on November 19, on charges ranging from defamation to harming national security. One of the journalists, Hicham Mansouri, is already behind bars on an…

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