Iraq / Middle East & North Africa

Beirut, October 2, 2017–Kurdish regional authorities in northern Iraq should immediately allow Al-Ahad TV correspondent Saif Rida to safely return to Kirkuk province and resume his work as a journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Beirut, August 30, 2017–The Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq should allow the independent media outlet Nalia Radio and Television (NRT) to resume broadcasting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Threats to journalists in Iraq have changed after government forces regained control over the city of Mosul and significantly reduced the territory controlled by the militant group Islamic State. CPJ’s Emergencies Response Team (ERT) has issued the following advisory for journalists who plan to continue working in Iraq.

New York, August 14, 2017–Iraqi authorities should stop threatening the pro-Kurdish broadcaster NRT and political satirist Ahmed al-Basheer, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In a letter NRT received August 10, the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission inquired whether the broadcaster’s Arabic-language channel would continue airing al-Basheer’s program and threatened to pursue “legal action”…

Beirut, July 11, 2017–Authorities in northern Iraq should conduct a thorough and credible investigation into the beating of journalist Ibrahim Abbas and should bring all those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Five armed men assaulted Abbas in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil yesterday, according to the journalist, news reports,…

New York, July 7, 2017–Snipers from the Islamic State group today killed Iraqi journalists Sudad Faris and Harb Hazza al-Duleimi as they covered Iraqi soldiers’ push to retake a village near Mosul, according to the channel and news reports.

Beirut, June 20, 2017–French cameraman Stephan Villeneuve and Iraqi fixer Bakhtiyar Haddad were killed in an explosion that also injured French journalists Veronique Robert and Samuel Forey as they covered Iraqi soldiers’ efforts to retake control of the old city of Mosul yesterday, according to news reports and the French journalists’ employers.

For nearly three years, Mosul journalist Mohammad Talal al-Nuaimi lived in constant fear of being discovered and killed. The seizure of Mosul by the militant group Islamic State, or IS, in early June 2014 and the subsequent targeting of local journalists had forced him into hiding. He was unable to do any media-related work under…

Beirut, June 1, 2017–Suhaib al-Heeti, a reporter for the independent Asia Satellite Channel in Iraq’s western Anbar province, was killed on May 30 in a suicide attack in the northern Anbar city of Heet, according to news reports, his employer, and the Iraq Observatory for Press Freedoms. He was at least the second journalist to…