Middle East & North Africa

The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas following its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. As of January 17, 2025, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 166 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon…

Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, journalists and media across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging.   In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while carrying…

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested — often without charge — in what they and their attorneys say is retaliation for their journalism and commentary. As of January 17, 2025, CPJ has documented a total of 75 arrests of journalists in the Palestinian…

Update: Since publication of this alert, the SSSP ordered on January 16 that Serag be detained for 15 days pending investigation on charges of joining a terrorist organization, spreading false news, using a website to promote terrorist ideas, and committing a financing-related crime, according to independent media outlets Mada Masr and Al-Manassa. Washington, D.C., January…

Tunisia has reached a troubling milestone, with at least five journalists behind bars in CPJ’s December 1, 2024, prison census, the highest number since the organization began keeping track in 1992. Once hailed as a beacon of freedom in the Arab world after the 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, Tunisia is now erasing…

Washington, D.C., January 15, 2025 — Yemen’s Houthi forces must release journalist Mohamed Al-Miyahi and the group’s non-state judicial system must drop its case against him, said the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday. After more than three months of arbitrary detention, including one month of enforced disappearance, Al-Miyahi appeared before the Houthi’s Specialized Criminal…

Beirut, January 15, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Wednesday’s reports of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and calls on authorities to grant unconditional access to journalists and independent human rights experts to investigate crimes committed against the media during the 15-month long war.  “Journalists have been paying the highest price…

Washington D.C., January 8, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that Islamic Republic of Iran authorities arrested Iranian journalist Mohammad-Hossein (Mehrdad) Aladin in the capital, Tehran, and have since detained him in Evin prison, according to news reports.  “Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Mehrdad Aladin and cease the practice of arbitrarily jailing members…

Haitian journalist Jean Marc Jean was covering an anti-government protest in Port-au-Prince in February 2024 when he was struck in the face by a gas canister fired by police into the crowd. One of at least five journalists injured while covering civil unrest in the country that month, Jean arrived at the hospital with a…

New York, January 6, 2025—Algerian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release freelance journalist and political activist Abdelwakil Blamm, who was arrested December 29, 2024, outside his home in the Chéraga suburb of Algiers, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. “Abdelwakil Blamm’s detention is a troubling escalation of the ongoing crackdown on press freedom in Algeria,” said…