Middle East & North Africa

2013

  
An Afghan journalist films in Kabul as a military helicopter flies above. (Reuters/Ahmad Masood)

Getting ready for contingencies in Afghanistan

Considering the worst-case scenarios for post-2014 Afghanistan, international news agencies should start planning a range of assistance responses for locally hired journalists and media staff. By the end of 2014, NATO troops will have largely withdrawn and the Karzai government will make way for a new administration. If the situation becomes chaotic, Afghans working for…

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Political prisoners leave Kober Prison in Khartoum on April 2. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's call to release political prisoners and launch dialogue with the opposition coincided with a return to pre-publication censorship. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Pre-publication censorship returns in Sudan

In a return to old tactics, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Sudan have resumed strict pre-publication censorship.

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Tamil journalist will not be forced back to Sri Lanka

A short note to follow up on an alert we posted Wednesday on the threatened deportation of Lohini Rathimohan  (also spelled Lokini), a former television journalist and one of 19 Tamil refugees facing deportation from the United Arab Emirates. Earlier reports said the refugees, who reached Dubai illegally, could be deported this week.

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A civil defense officer carries the body of a young victim a mall fire during a funeral in Doha on May 29, 2012. Hearings to determine criminal responsibility for the fire are underway. (Reuters/Hamad I Mohammed)

In UAE and Qatar, key trials go unreported as media barred

In the past month, officials in both the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have prevented journalists from reporting on important court proceedings. But it is not too late to allow the press to cover these crucial cases.

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Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah is surrounded by supporters as he leaves the prosecutor general's office in Cairo on Tuesday. (AP/Mostafa Darwish)

In Egypt, crackdown against media reaches new lows

The government of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi continues to escalate its offensive against journalists. Details of the most recent case, in which an arrest warrant was issued for blogger Alaa Abdelfattah for inciting “aggression” against members of the Muslim Brotherhood, show how low the government is willing to go in order to silence its critics.

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An Iraqi journalist walks past a wall of photos of journalists killed during the Iraq War. (AP/Samir Mizban)

Iraq war and news media: A look inside the death toll

The U.S.-led war in Iraq claimed the lives of a record number of journalists and challenged some commonly held perceptions about the risks of covering conflict. Far more journalists, for example, were murdered in targeted killings in Iraq than died in combat-related circumstances. Here, on the 10th anniversary of the start of the war, is…

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CPJ

Mission Journal: Who is a journalist in Egypt?

Egyptian journalists, besieged by punitive lawsuits and under threat, agree that under President Mohamed Morsi “there is no press freedom, only the courage of journalists,” as editor Ibrahim Eissa put it. What they can’t agree on is–in a climate of freewheeling, mutable media–who exactly is a journalist? 

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For Iran and U.S., mutually restrictive visa policies

Istanbul-based McClatchy correspondent Roy Gutman has been honored for his reporting from Srebrenica to Baghdad. But he can’t get a visa for Iran. He blames the U.S. government, at least in part. 

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A Bahraini anti-government protester carries a sign with the picture of a jailed photographer during a march in Karranah, Bahrain, on Friday. (AP/Hasan Jamali)

To bridge divide, Bahrain should expand media access

The Bahraini press, like almost everything else in the island country, is sharply divided. If the government would take steps to strengthen press freedom instead of restricting access, then much of this divide could be bridged.

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An image grab from a YouTube video uploaded on December 18 allegedly shows NBC employees, from left to right, Aziz Akyavas, Richard Engel, and John Kooistra in captivity in Syria. (AFP/YouTube)

Do news blackouts help journalists held captive?

At any given time over the past two years, as wars raged in Libya and then Syria, and as other conflicts ground on in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, a number of journalists have been held captive by a diverse array of forces, from militants and rebels to criminals and paramilitaries. And at any given…

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2013