Middle East & North Africa

Contact CPJ Middle East & North Africa

Twitter: @CPJMena
Facebook: لجنة حماية الصحفيين بالعربية
Interim Program Coordinator:
Yeganeh Rezaian

Tel: +1 212-300-9018, +1 212-300-9017
Fax: +1 212-214-0640

Knight Foundation Press Freedom Center
P.O. Box 2675
New York, NY 10108 USA

  

Global coalition of NGOs calls for immediate ceasefire in Lebanon

The Committee to Protect Journalists and 51 other non-governmental organizations issued a joint statement on Thursday, November 14, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. The statement said Israel had attacked protected persons, including journalists, health workers, peacekeepers, and emergency responders, and called on the international community to “condemn and demand an immediate end to…

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Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war

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 November 14, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 137 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon…

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Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war

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…

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EU must act decisively to halt Israel’s silencing of journalists

New York, November 13, 2024—Ahead of their November 18 meeting, CPJ calls on European Union foreign ministers to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement in light of Israel’s unprecedented attack on press freedom and ongoing abuses of international law. The agreement sets out the EU’s legal and institutional framework for political dialogue and economic cooperation with…

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Arrests of Palestinian journalists since start of Israel-Gaza war

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 November 14, 2024, CPJ has documented a total of 74 arrests of journalists in the Palestinian…

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Egypt sentences detained journalist to 20 years; accused of threatening 2nd journalist

Washington, D.C., November 13, 2024—Egyptian authorities sentenced in absentia journalist Yasser Abu Al-Ela to 20 years in prison on charges of joining a terrorist organization and spreading false news. Separately, press freedom advocate Rasha Azab accused the Interior Minister and the head of the National Security Agency of orchestrating recent threats against her and surveilling…

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Alaa Abdelfattah

CPJ, others ask UN working group for update on Egyptian writer Alaa Abdelfattah

The Committee to Protect Journalists, along with 26 other press freedom and human rights organizations, sent a letter on November 12 to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) seeking updates on the urgent appeal filed on November 14, 2023, concerning the imprisonment of Egyptian writer Alaa Abdelfattah. The appeal, submitted by Abdelfattah and…

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Journalists film while standing before destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza on October 9, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Omar Al-Qattaa)

‘Catastrophic’: Journalists say ethnic cleansing taking place in a news void in northern Gaza

On Wednesday, November 6, an Israeli strike killed at least 15 people in a house in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. But communications difficulties meant that the Gaza health ministry struggled to determine the death toll. This is just one example among countless others where local reporters were able to help verify information about potential atrocities…

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Journalist Wrya Abdulkhaliq of Iraqi Kurdistan's Bwar News (left) was stabbed in the abdomen and his car tires were punctured to prevent him escaping.

Journalist stabbed in Iraqi Kurdistan after reporting on corruption

Sulaymaniyah, November 8, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for full accountability in the attack on journalist Wrya Abdulkhaliq, who received 21 stitches after two men stabbed his stomach and hit him in the head with the butt of a gun, in his home near Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaymaniyah city. “We are appalled by the brutal…

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CPJ, 14 organizations urge UK to pause economic cooperation with Egypt until Alaa Abd el-Fattah is freed

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 14 human rights organizations in a November 1 letter urging U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy to suspend all economic and financial partnerships with Egypt until the country frees British writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was due for release on September 29 after completing a five-year prison sentence. Egyptian authorities have refused…

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