Middle East & North Africa

2017

  
A panel at the Sporting Chance Forum in Geneva discusses the obligation of host nations to create a safe environment for the press. (Courtney C. Radsch/CPJ)

CPJ joins coalition to establish sports and human rights center

The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a coalition of international sport organizations, civil society, and governments that are establishing an independent Centre for Sport and Human Rights. In a statement published today, the Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights, which CPJ is part of, outlined its commitment to establishing the center in 2018.

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CPJ urges Algeria’s Prime Minister to release freelance journalist and fixer Said Chitour

The Committee to Protect Journalists writes to Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia urging him to ask that his government drop the charges against and immediately release freelance journalist and fixer Said Chitour.

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Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz addresses the Sustainable Development Summit Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, at the United Nations headquarters. Protesters have called for President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to punish freelance blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed for an article he wrote that the protesters claim is blasphemous. (AP/Frank Franklin II)

Mauritanian authorities change legal code, could retry Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed

New York, November 20, 2017–Mauritanian authorities on November 16 approved an amendment to the country’s penal code that could allow courts to retroactively retry freelance blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, who was convicted of blasphemy in 2014, and potentially re-sentence him to death, the state-owned news agency AMI and Agence France-Pressereported. The Committee to Protect…

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The city of Baghdad is seen out the door during a helicopter on October 23, 2017. Iraqi armed forces arrested freelance journalist and political commentator Samir Obeid a day after Obeid published an article that was critical of the country's prime minister. (Reuters/Pool/Alex Brandon)

CPJ calls on Iraqi authorities to release journalist Samir Obeid

Beirut, November 9, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Iraqi authorities to release freelance journalist and political commentator Samir Obeid immediately.

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President Rouhani, pictured in Tehran on November 6. The U.N. is due to vote next week on a resolution to promote human rights in Iran. (AFP/Atta Kenare)

CPJ calls on UN to support resolution on human rights in Iran

CPJ, along with over 30 Iranian and international human rights organizations, has called on the U.N. General Assembly to vote in favor of a proposed resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran next week.

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A vigil in Sliema, Malta, for Daphne Caruana Galizia, a critical blogger killed in a car bombing in October 2017. (AFP/Matthew Mirabelli)

Getting Away with Murder

CPJ’s 2017 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free

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A Kurdish flag is waved during a rally in support of the Iraqi Kurdish leader in Erbil on October 30, 2017. Amid unrest in the region, Kurdish news outlets are attacked and harassed. (AFP/Safin Hamed)

Kurdish journalist killed, others attacked amid post referendum tensions

New York, October 30, 2017– CPJ today condemned attacks against the Kurdish media in Iraq and called on all parties to refrain from targeting the press as political and military tensions escalate over a Kurdish independence bid. In recent days, attackers stabbed to death a journalist, a mob attacked two TV crews, and Iraq’s media…

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Women browse graphic novels at a comic festival in Algiers in October 2017. The co-founder of an Algerian news outlet says access to his news website is blocked. (AFP/Ryad Kramdi)

Access blocked to Algerian news website

Access to the Algerian news website Tout Sur l’Algérie (TSA) (All about Algeria) has been inaccessible on the country’s state-owned internet service provider since October 5, 2017, according to news reports and a statement by the website’s directors.

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Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir addresses supporters during his visit to the war-torn Darfur region, in Bilal, Darfur, Sudan September 22, 2017. A Sudanese criminal court convicted an editor to six months in prison for publishing an article that accused Sudan's first family of corruption, according to news reports. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

Sudan jails al-Tayar journalist over article alleging corruption in president’s family

New York, October 23, 2017–Sudanese authorities should immediately release al-Tayar Editor-in-Chief Osman Mirgani from prison and drop all charges against him and al-Tayar columnist Mohamed Zine al-Abidine, the Committee to Protect journalists said today.

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Employees of TransMedia look at a military order attached to their office doors in Hebron on October 18, 2017. Israeli forces raided several media companies for alleged incitement. (AFP/Hazem Bader)

Israeli forces raid several Palestinian media production companies

Beirut, October 19, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Israeli authorities to stop harassing Palestinian media and to release two staff members of a media company arrested during a series of raids in the West Bank yesterday.

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2017