Middle East & North Africa

  
Ali Rezaian, brother of Jason Rezaian, gives an update on the case at the National Press Club in Washington on July 22. (AP/Molly Riley)

CPJ joins call for UN members to push Iran on rights

The Committee to Protect Journalists has joined 35 other organizations in calling on member states of the U.N. General Assembly to vote in favor of a resolution for the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran. The vote is scheduled to take place during the 70th session of the General Assembly on November 19.

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Photos of children who lost their documents while fleeing militants in Mosul are displayed at an Iraqi passport office. Many journalists fled the violence but the fate of those who remained is hard to determine. (AFP/Safin Hamed)

Chasing ghosts: Tracking Iraq’s missing journalists in Islamic State stranglehold of Mosul

Amar hasn’t left his house in five days. Every evening he fears a knock on the door will bring militants who have been searching for him. He hasn’t earned a salary in more than a year and relies on a few trusted neighbors to bring him food.

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Sue Turton, Dominic Kane, center, and Peter Greste, at a press conference in CPJ's New York office. The Al-Jazeera journalists, who were convicted in absentia in Egypt, are calling on President el-Sisi to intervene in their cases. (AP/Julie Jacobson)

Beyond the pardons, press freedom still under threat in Egypt

Today the Committee to Protect Journalists hosted a press conference for three Al-Jazeera journalists who have been convicted in absentia in Egypt. The journalists expressed solidarity with other members of the press who have been charged by the Egyptian government, and called on President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to intervene in their cases.

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CPJ joins call for Morocco to end harassment of journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists has joined the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and three other human rights groups, in calling on the government of Morocco to stop its harassment of journalists and human rights defenders. The statement was delivered during the general debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on…

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CPJ joins call for Canada to help free Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy

The Committee to Protect Journalists has signed a joint letter calling on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take immediate action to have jailed Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy deported from Egypt to Canada. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon and Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour signed the letter to Harper along with…

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CPJ joins call for Syria to drop charges against press freedom activists

The Committee to Protect Journalists has joined 16 other human rights and press freedom organisations calling on Syrian authorities to drop charges against Mazen Darwish, the founder of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, who was released from prison on August 10.

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CPJ joins call for Bahrain to free blogger on hunger strike

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with 40 human rights and press freedom groups, is calling on Bahrain to release Abduljalil Alsingace. The imprisoned blogger began waging a partial hunger strike on March 21, 2015 in protest at the maltreatment of prisoners after a riot in Jaw prison earlier that month, according to a campaign…

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Audio: James Foley on being a freelance war correspondent

In April 2012, Nicole Schilit, research associate in CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program, interviewed James Foley about his experience working as a freelance journalist in conflict zones. The interview took place in New York between reporting trips to Libya and Syria. Foley was murdered in Syria in August 2014.

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A photograph of James Foley is seen during a memorial service in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan on August 24, 2014. (AP/Marko Drobnjakovic)

A year after James Foley and Steven Sotloff murders, more awareness of risks

Journalists who regularly cover violence are considered a hard-boiled bunch. But a year ago this month, even the toughest were crying. There was no emotional body armor to deflect the horror of the beheading videos of freelancers James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and other Westerners held hostage in Syria by the self-styled Islamic State, also known…

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Shiite rebels known as Houthis rally against Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, on August 11. (AP/Hani Mohammed)

Yemeni journalists: ‘Our mouths are gagged’

In March 2014, Sana’a University media student Hisham al-Yousifi stood next to Dar al-Hajar, a royal palace built on the precipice of a rock formation just outside the capital, and announced to the video camera, “Here, there are a lot of tourists!” But there were no tourists, just his friends barely failing to hold back…

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