Middle East & North Africa

Palestinian freelance journalist Salman al-Khatib and his colleagues were filming Israeli demolitions of homes in the occupied West Bank late last month when a young settler approached them, blocked their cameras, shoved the journalists, and kicked Al-Khatib. After another settler arrived on the scene, located between the towns of Birzeit and Atara, north of Ramallah,…

On January 18, 2026, German journalist Eva Maria Michelmann and her Kurdish-Turkish colleague Ahmed Polad were detained while reporting from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, as government forces advanced on the territory controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). After  months of denying knowledge, authorities admitted holding them in custody. Michelmann, who had…

New York, September 7, 2026 —Tunisian authorities must immediately release journalist Mohamed Yousfi, a well-known critic of President Kais Saied’s government, and end its use of financial crime allegations to target members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Friday, September 4, police from the financial crimes unit arrested Yousfi, editor-in-chief…

Amman, September 7, 2026 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the recent escalation in Israeli strikes on Gaza and Lebanon, which have injured at least four journalists, including three on Sunday, underscoring the fragility of the ceasefires in both locations.  On September 6, 2026, Lebanese correspondent for the local Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV…

The Committee to Protect Journalists was joined Monday by 16 civil society organizations in calling on the Sudanese paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to immediately release Nyala Radio journalists Ishraqah Abdulrahman, Zahraa Muhammad Al-Hassan, and Mawahib Ibrahim, who have been detained in South Darfur since February 28. CPJ and its partners expressed alarm over…

In Tunisia, at least four journalists and commentators sentenced to prison over the last year remain free, trying to work and carry on with their daily lives while knowing they could be arrested and taken into custody. Two others are in exile, unable to return home without risking imprisonment. Whether they will eventually be forced…

New York, August 31, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Tunisian authorities to immediately release journalists Zied el-Heni, Mourad Zghidi, and Borhen Bsaies, as reports of prisoner deaths amid an extreme heatwave raise grave concerns about life-threatening conditions in the country’s overcrowded prisons. At least 10 prisoners have died in recent weeks, as temperatures…

On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Committee to Protect Journalists, together with press freedom and human rights organizations, calls on all parties to the conflict and the de facto authorities in Yemen to immediately end the use of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention against journalists and media workers, and to…

Arrest, prosecution, and censorship have long shaped the media landscape in Iran. Currently, nine journalists are known to be imprisoned for doing their job, including Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh, who was detained in September 2024 and is currently serving 10 years in prison. But members of the press interviewed in August by the Committee to…

New York, August 21, 2026 – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) joined 67 other civil society organizations in calling on the UN Human Rights Council to extend the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan (FFM) for two years and provide it with adequate resources to investigate grave violations and support…