Mariwan Hama-Saeed/Middle East Research Associate

Mariwan Hama-Saeed served as CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa research consultant. He is a founder of Metro Center, a press freedom group in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Inside the defense of Roxana Saberi

Roxana Saberi was released on Monday after more than four months imprisonment at Tehran’s Evin Prison. She had been convicted of spying for the U.S. in a closed-door, one-hour trial on April 18 in a notoriously harsh Iranian Revolutionary Court and given an eight-year jail sentence. On Sunday, a court of appeal in Tehran gave…

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Tunisia’s Radio Kalima shuttered; staffers harassed

Ever since Radio Kalima staffers launched their new station on January 26, Tunisian plainclothes police have done everything they can to suppress the newly launched satellite radio station: besieging the offices for several days, threatening a managing editor with a knife, and finally breaking into the building and confiscating the equipment.

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Defending al-Zaidi, but not journalists at home

The now infamous incident of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi throwing his shoes at President George Bush became primetime news throughout the world. In the Middle East it has been shown on television almost endlessly. 

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Freed in Iraq, an editor offers thanks

Shwan Dawdi, editor-in-chief of the Kirkuk-based newspaper Hawal, sent a letter thanking CPJ for its help in overturning his conviction and one-month prison term. “I would like to express … my thanks and gratitude for your noble and courageous position to defend the freedom of the press and journalists,” Dawdi wrote.

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Tunisia responds to critical CPJ report

We received a large package from the Tunisian Embassy in Washington on Friday. The package contained an official response to our September special report, “The Smiling Oppressor” and a hefty collection of Tunisian newspapers and individual articles that the government says demonstrates a “liberal and pluralistic media landscape” under President Zine El Abidine’s 21-year rule.…

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A freed Yemeni editor offers thanks

Yemeni editor Abdel Karim al-Khaiwani walked out of a Sana’a prison today after being granted a presidential pardon. The outspoken journalist was serving a six-year prison term on what were widely seen as retaliatory antistate charges. Al-Khaiwani, whose case was the focus of a CPJ advocacy campaign, offered his gratitude. I thank the Committee to…

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