Middle East & North Africa

Editor’s notes: The list below is CPJ’s most recent and preliminary account of journalist deaths in the war. Our database will not include all of these casualties until we have completed further investigations into the circumstances surrounding them. For more information, read our FAQ. The Israel-Gaza war has taken a severe toll on journalists since…

Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, 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 out…

Israel’s surprise attack on Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza on March 18, and the two weeks of fighting that followed, resulted in hundreds of deaths and a trail of destruction. It also left a morass of contradictory information about exactly who was killed there, who was arrested, and who went missing.   As the Israel-Gaza war…

Beirut, May 6, 2024 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is extremely concerned by reports of Israeli forces shooting at an Al-Araby TV crew on Saturday and calls for an immediate and transparent investigation into whether the journalists were targeted. Israeli forces fired at Ameed Shehade, a reporter with Qatari-funded broadcaster Al-Araby TV, and camera…

Beirut, May 5, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Israeli cabinet’s decision to shut down Al-Jazeera’s operations in Israel and warns that the vote could set a dangerous precedent for other international media outlets working in Israel.    The cabinet vote on Sunday, announced by the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X, came after Israel’s parliament passed a…

Washington, D.C., April 30, 2024—Iranian authorities must immediately release journalist Parisa Salehi from prison and cease jailing members of the press for doing their jobs by reporting on events of public interest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.  On January 24, Judge Asef Al-Hosseini, in Branch one of Karaj Revolutionary Court, sentenced Parisa Salehi, an economics reporter for the state-run financial…

On February 17, 2024, Iraqi Kurdish journalist Guhdar Zebari was released from prison, concluding a three-and-a-half year legal saga that saw him convicted on anti-state and other charges in retaliation for his work. Zebari is one of the so-called “Badinan prisoners” – a group of journalists and activists from the ethnic Badinani group who were…

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the MENA Rights Group (MRG), filed an Urgent Action on April 12, 2024, to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, asking for the Iraqi Kurdish government to clarify the fate and whereabouts of Syrian journalist Sleman Ahmed, who was arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan on October 25, 2023. Ahmed,…

New York, April 29, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday called on Israeli security forces to stop harassing journalists in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank and allow them to report the news freely and without fear of reprisal. On April 24, Palestinian freelance journalist Saif Kwasmi was reporting on activities at Jerusalem’s…

Brussels, April 23, 2024— The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Tuesday’s remarks by the European Union’s Josep Borrell about the need to protect journalists in the Israel-Gaza war and calls on all EU member states also to make or renew calls that both sides should respect international law during the conflict, take all measures to…