Iran / Middle East & North Africa

New York, June 23, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by Israeli authorities’ orders that international media obtain prior approval from the military censor before broadcasting news from combat zones or missile impact areas in the country.  Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Friday that broadcasting from those locations…

Iran’s conflict with Israel has intensified media censorship in the Islamic Republic, with Iranian journalists warned not to comment online and a task force set up to prosecute those sharing “fake” news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday, calling for press freedom to be respected. Two Iranian journalists, who spoke to CPJ on condition…

Palestinian journalists in Israel covering the conflict with Iran that began June 13 have been accused of “working for the enemy,” barred from reporting sites, physically assaulted, and subjected to racial slurs. The attacks and restrictions against the Palestinian journalists are part of a broader pattern of obstruction and hostility toward the press in Israel….

Paris, June 17, 2025—One journalist and one media worker with Iran’s state-owned broadcaster have died from their injuries following Monday’s Israeli strike on the headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in the capital Tehran, according to news reports. Nima Rajabpour, a 50-year-old news editor died after undergoing surgery for shrapnel in his back and thigh,…

Paris, June 9, 2025—Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh, who is serving a 10-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison, launched a hunger strike on June 7 to protest the seizure of his essential documents, including his birth certificate, which he needs to manage his legal affairs and protect his assets abroad. Valizadeh, a former Radio Farda reporter, returned to…

Paris, June 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a new wave of harassment by Iranian authorities targeting the Iranian families of BBC journalists as part of a broader campaign of repression beyond the Islamic Republic’s borders.  BBC Persian journalists in London told The Guardian and CPJ that their families back in Iran have faced…

Paris, May 6, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the intensifying crackdown on press freedom in Iran, including the recent conviction of six media directors and founders, and urges the Iranian authorities to immediately cease their systematic persecution of journalists and media organizations. “These systematic attacks are clear examples of censorship, media repression, and obstruction…

Washington D.C., January 8, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that Islamic Republic of Iran authorities arrested Iranian journalist Mohammad-Hossein (Mehrdad) Aladin in the capital, Tehran, and have since detained him in Evin prison, according to news reports.  “Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Mehrdad Aladin and cease the practice of arbitrarily jailing members…

Haitian journalist Jean Marc Jean was covering an anti-government protest in Port-au-Prince in February 2024 when he was struck in the face by a gas canister fired by police into the crowd. One of at least five journalists injured while covering civil unrest in the country that month, Jean arrived at the hospital with a…

Editor’s note: Cecilia Sala was freed on January 8, 2025. Press freedom organizations and the organizers of the International Journalism Festival (IJF) called on Iran on Tuesday to release Italian journalist Cecilia Sala with immediate effect. Sala was arrested in Iran on December 19 and is being held in the notorious Evin prison. Iran confirmed…