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YEMEN Yemen’s press found itself on the defensive as a string of chilling attacks occurred against a backdrop of armed conflict, economic upheaval, and public protests. The release of imprisoned editor Abdel Kareem al-Khawaini was a bright spot in an otherwise troubled year that saw harassment and violent attacks against journalists on the rise. President…
Israel and the Occupied Territories, including the Palestinian Authority TerritoriesWith Iraq dominating media security concerns in the Middle East, journalists covering the region’s other main flash point quietly faced a familiar array of hazards on the job. The occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip remained two of the most dangerous and unpredictable assignments for journalists…
YemenYemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in May that he would work to decriminalize press offenses. Yet three months later, a prominent editor who published opinion pieces opposing the president’s handling of a bloody armed rebellion was sentenced to a year in prison, and his newspaper was suspended for six months.
New York, July 22, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by new threats against Palestinian journalists covering political unrest in the Gaza Strip, the most recent in a months-long series of actions by Palestinian militants and forces intended to stifle independent reporting there. Journalists working for the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera and the…
Egypt boasts many national, party, independent, and opposition publications that feature some of the Arab world’s best-known commentators. But over the years, the government has alternated between crackdowns on the media and periods of relative openness. For Egyptian journalists, self-censorship is the norm because violating the country’s stringent press laws can land them in prison.…
New York, February 5, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) deplores recent violent attacks on private Palestinian media outlets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by armed gunmen. At around 4:00 a.m. on Monday, February 2, three masked Palestinian men carrying automatic rifles stormed the offices of the Ramallah-based Al-Quds Educational Television, according to…
While the press is largely free within Israel proper, the country’s military assault on the Occupied Territories fueled a sharp deterioration in press freedom in the West Bank and Gaza during much of 2002. Despite vocal international protest, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) committed an assortment of press freedom abuses, ranging from banning press access…
Your Excellency: We the undersigned join the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in protesting the detention of our colleague Ibrahim Hemaidi, the Damascus bureau chief for the London-based daily Al-Hayat. Syrian authorities arrested Hemaidi on December 23, 2002, because of an article he wrote for Al-Hayat about alleged preparations by the Syrian government for an…
New York, October 21, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urges the Israeli government to release Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Hussam Abu Alan, who has been held without charge for nearly six months. According to AFP’s Jerusalem bureau, Abu Alan’s period of administrative detention is scheduled to expire tomorrow. Abu Alan was detained on April…