Syria / Middle East & North Africa

  

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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How Islamic State uses killings to try to spread fear among media

The militant group Islamic State may be trying to push Syria back into the dark ages, but it is fighting a very modern war. From slick propaganda videos to online surveillance and wide restrictions on Internet use, the Islamic State is trying to control media output and stamp down on dissent.

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People walk on rubble after what activists said were airstrikes and shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus, February 9, 2015. (Reuters/Mohammed Badra)

Syria anniversary shows need for more news outlets to step up

It started as a street protest against President Bashar al-Assad. Ordinary citizens took out their smart phones to record the demonstrations that quickly spread. Four years and 220,000 dead later, the Syrian civil war is still raging, although the numbers of ‘citizen’ and professional journalists on hand to document it is woefully small.

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A vigil for Syrian prisoners is held in Aleppo in January. On March 15 a series of events will mark journalists killed or imprisoned while covering the uprising. (Reuters/Amar Abdullah)

How many more? CPJ remembers journalists killed covering Syria

On March 15 the fourth anniversary of the start of the Syrian uprising will be marked. No one knew in the early days of unrest how events would escalate, let alone how the entire region and the journalists covering it would be so deeply impacted.

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Supporting journalists at risk: Syrian reporter Rifaie Tammas

In its new series, “Supporting journalists at risk,” CPJ profiles journalists who have been in dire situations as a result of persecution for their work. CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program has helped these journalists, and hundreds of others, through a combination of financial and non-financial assistance. In this edition, CPJ recounts how 26-year-old Syrian Rifaie Tammas…

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Supporting journalists at risk: Syrian reporter Zakwan Hadid

In its new series, “Supporting journalists at risk,” CPJ profiles journalists who have been in dire situations as a result of persecution for their work. CPJ’s Journalist Assistance program has helped these journalists, and hundreds of others, through a combination of financial and non-financial assistance. In this edition, CPJ looks at Zakwan Hadid, a 29-year-old…

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CPJ joins call for Syria to release three press freedom defenders from jail

Three years ago Syrian Air Force Intelligence agents raided the office of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus, arresting all who were present. While some of those arrested were later released, Mazen Darwish, Hani al-Zitani, and Hussein Ghrer have been imprisoned ever since.

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Supporters of Kenji Goto gather outside the Japanese prime minister's Tokyo residence at a rally for the journalist, who is being held hostage by the Islamic State. (Reuters/Yuya Shino)

Kenji Goto’s reporting is voice of humanity in times of atrocity

Kenji Goto, the 47-year-old television journalist held captive by the Islamic State (IS), is not a typical reporter, nor is he typically Japanese. But his courage and commitment to broadcasting humane stories from some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones would put him at the pinnacle of his profession anywhere in the world. It…

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Moheeb Alnawaty, author of Hamas From The Inside, was taken into Syrian custody and has not been heard from since January 2011. (Alnawaty family handout)

Family of journalist jailed in Syria await news, four years on

When Ibtisam Alnawaty last spoke to her husband, Moheeb Alnawaty, in January 2011, there was nothing to suggest that he feared for his safety. The Palestinian-Norwegian writer had traveled to Syria in December 2010 to translate his book, Hamas From The Inside, and had even suggested the family should move there from Norway, his wife…

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