Kuwait / Middle East & North Africa

Washington, D.C., May 6, 2026—Since the Iran war started late February, CPJ has documented a crackdown on the press across the Gulf and tracked unpublicized cases of arrests, intimidation, and legal and financial actions against journalists and their media outlets. The escalation represents a significant and underreported threat to press freedom in Gulf countries, where…

Washington, D.C., April 29, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Kuwaiti government’s decision to revoke the citizenship of U.S.-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin and his two sisters, just days after his release from two months of wrongful detention. “Stripping Shihab-Eldin of his citizenship is not just punitive, it is a dangerous escalation in the use…

New York, April 25, 2026—Journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin has been reunited with his family and is in a place of safety, a legal team acting for his sisters said on Saturday. The award-winning U.S.-Kuwaiti journalist was detained on March 3 in Kuwait, where he was visiting family. “We are delighted that Ahmed Shihab-Eldin has been released…

Update: In an April 29, 2026, statement, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin’s attorneys clarified that the journalist was acquitted on only one of three charges. Washington, D.C., April 23, 2026 — The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes a Kuwaiti court’s acquittal of U.S.-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin on all charges following nearly two months of detention.  “We are relieved…

On April 22, the international legal counsel acting for the sisters of U.S.-Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin issued an urgent statement, saying they were “extremely concerned for Ahmed’s safety and wellbeing” in Kuwaiti detention, and demanding his release.  The international legal team has filed urgent appeals with United Nations experts, and they are engaging with U.S.,…

Washington, D.C., April 13, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Kuwaiti authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Kuwaiti-American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. Shihab-Eldin, an award-winning journalist who posts prolifically on social media, has not posted online or been seen in public in Kuwait – where he was visiting family – since March 2. It is…

The Committee to Protect Journalists is monitoring press freedom violations related to the ongoing military escalation between Israel, the U.S and Iran and its spillover across the Middle East, including its regional and global impact on journalists and media workers. Since the Iran war broke out on February 28, when the U.S and Israel launched…

The Committee to Protect Journalists, in partnership with the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)—an independent, nonprofit civil society organization—has submitted a report on the state of human rights in Kuwait to the United Nations Human Rights Council ahead of Kuwait’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session on May 7, 2025. The UPR, a United Nations…

Washington, D.C., June 24, 2022 – Kuwaiti authorities should restore the licenses recently withdrawn from dozens of news websites, and should ensure that media outlets are not prosecuted for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On Wednesday, June 22, the Kuwaiti Information Ministry announced that over the last two weeks it had…

In early February 2011, Alaa Abdelfattah was in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, documenting and participating in the nascent pro-democracy uprising that would topple the government and transform the country and the region. Today, he is in prison on anti-state and false news charges, which his family believes are partly retaliatory for his work. Abdelfattah is one of…