New York, February 20, 2004—Egyptian Ambassador to the United States Nabil Fahmy told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) yesterday that a U.S. journalist who was expelled from Egypt in late January without explanation can return to the country and resume his work. On January 29, at Cairo International Airport, Egyptian security authorities ordered Charles…
New York, July 8, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent suspension of Al-Sada, the weekly newspaper of the Takaful party, a small Egyptian political group. Al-Sada editor Yasser Barakat told CPJ that the paper was suspended on June 25, and that agents from State Security Investigation department called in Essam Abdel Razek,…
New York, June 3, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent imprisonment of Mostafa Bakry and his brother Mahmoud Bakry, editor-in-chief and deputy editor-in-chief, respectively, of the weekly newspaper Al-Osboa. On Sunday, June 1, Cairo’s Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest legal authority, rejected the appeals of the journalists, who had been sentenced to…
Although the Kenya-based East African Standard, one of Africa’s oldest continuously published newspapers, marked its 100th anniversary in November, journalism remains a difficult profession on the continent, with adverse government policies and multifaceted economic woes still undermining the full development of African media.
The Arab world continues to lag behind the rest of the globe in civil and political rights, including press freedom. Despotic regimes of varying political shades regularly limit news that they think will undermine their power. Hopes that a new generation of leaders would tolerate criticism in the press have proved illusory, with many reforms…
Egypt’s position as one of the most politically influential countries in the Arab world ensures its press a prominent regional standing. The country boasts some of the best-known writers and commentators in the Middle East, and newspaper columnists often pointedly criticize government officials and policies. Nonetheless, Egyptian journalists know that some topics remain sensitive–criticism of…
While the press is largely free within Israel proper, the country’s military assault on the Occupied Territories fueled a sharp deterioration in press freedom in the West Bank and Gaza during much of 2002. Despite vocal international protest, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) committed an assortment of press freedom abuses, ranging from banning press access…
New York, June 28, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) protests the harassment by Egyptian police of several reporters covering yesterday’s runoff parliamentary elections in the northern city of Alexandria. Egyptian police detained two journalists from U.A.E.based Abu Dhabi TV and two others from German television channel ZDF as they tried to film at polling…
New York, June 28, 2002–The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) protests the harassment by Egyptian police of several reporters covering yesterday’s runoff parliamentary elections in the northern city of Alexandria. Egyptian police detained two journalists from U.A.E.based Abu Dhabi TV and two others from German television channel ZDF as they tried to film at polling…