Middle East & North Africa

2019

  
Palestinian photographer Moath Amarneh is seen after being hit with shrapnel from a rubber bullet fired by Israeli security forces in Surif, the West Bank, on November 15, 2019. (AFP/Hazem Bader)

Palestinian photographer Moath Amarneh injured by Israeli forces

Beirut, November 18, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned Israeli security forces’ injuring of Palestinian photographer Moath Amarneh and called on Israeli authorities to immediately open an investigation into the incident and hold those responsible into account.

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A Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighter stands in a street in the border town of Tal Abyad, in Syria, on October 27, 2019. Military action in Syria has increased risks for journalists. (Reuters/Khalil Ashawi)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering Rojava and northern Syria

Following Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria in October, dozens of local and international journalists have reported on developments from the region. The military action has increased risks for journalists, with at least three killed during Turkish airstrikes last month, according to CPJ research.

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The city of Zakho in Iraq, in October 2017. Kurdish security forces detained a journalist for nearly two weeks in Zakho and Duhok, after he returned from a reporting trip to Syria. (Reuters/Ari Jalal)

Assyrian journalist detained in Iraq for 13 days after reporting trip to Syria

Kurdish Asayish security forces detained William Bnyameen Adam, an Assyrian journalist, for 13 days after the contributor to the California-based broadcaster Assyrian National Broadcasting (ANB) returned from a two-week assignment in northern Syria, the journalist told CPJ. The journalist said that security forces confiscated his equipment, beat him, and questioned him about his reporting.

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The Shargh Daily newspaper is seen in Tehran on July 10, 2019. A political columnist at the paper and another local journalist were recently sentenced to jailtime on propaganda charges. (Reuters/Nazanin Tabatabaee/West Asia News Agency)

Iranian court sentences 2 journalists to jail on propaganda charges

In October 2019, the Tehran Appeals Court sentenced Pouria Alami, a political columnist and satirist with the reformist Shargh Daily, to one year in prison and Tahereh Riahi, the former social affairs editor of the government-funded Borna News Agency, to two and a half years in prison, according to news reports and a person close…

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Residents and a rescue worker carry the body of a man killed in an airstrike in Kfar Rumah, in Syria's Idlib province, on November 10, 2019. A journalist for the Kafr Rumah Media Office was killed during shelling in the town. (AFP/Abdulaziz Ketaz)

Syrian photojournalist al-Yousef killed as forces shell southern Idlib

Beirut, November 11, 2019—The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the killing of Syrian journalist Abdul Hameed al-Yousef and urged all sides in the Syrian conflict to guarantee the safety of civilians, including journalists.

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CPJ
Covers of CPJ's 'Attacks on the Press' books. Starting in 1987, the annual publication acted as a database of press freedom violations. (CPJ/Mustafa Hameed)

CPJ deepens database of attacks on the press

He couldn’t have known it at the time, but when a Moroccan court sentenced editor Mohammed al-Herd on August 4, 2003, to three years in prison, he was emblematic of a new trend, one that would accelerate and continue to the present day.

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A member of Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas is seen in the southern Gaza Strip on June 23, 2019. The Hamas-affiliated Internal Security Forces recently arrested journalist Bassam Mohammad Moheisen. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

Palestinian journalist Bassam Moheisen detained by Hamas forces in Gaza since October 23

Beirut, November 1, 2019 — Hamas security forces should immediately release journalist Bassam Mohammad Moheisen, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Demonstrators are seen in Baghdad, Iraq, on October 25, 2019. Journalists have been attacked and detained amid the protests. (Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani)

Journalists injured and detained, broadcasters banned as protests resume in Iraq

Beirut, October 29, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned recent attacks on journalists and media outlets in Iraq, and urged authorities to ensure that journalists can cover the ongoing protests in the country safely and without obstruction.

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Getting Away with Murder

CPJ’s 2019 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free Published October 29, 2019 Somalia is the world’s worst country for the fifth year in a row when it comes to prosecuting murderers of journalists, CPJ’s 2019 Global Impunity Index found. War and political instability have fostered a deadly…

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Maati Monjib, right, chats with Moroccan journalist Hicham Mansouri in Rabat, Morocco, January 17, 2016. Amnesty International reported this month that Monjib has been sent malicious messages in an attempt to install spyware on his phone. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Q&A: Moroccan press freedom advocate and NSO Group spyware target Maati Monjib

Pegasus, the cellphone spyware tool sold by the Israeli firm NSO Group, is one of the most powerful surveillance systems governments can buy, experts say. Researchers who study it have detected “45 countries where Pegasus operators may be conducting surveillance operations,” and detailed its capabilities: whoever tricks the target into clicking on a link that…

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2019