Middle East & North Africa

  
A bus carries rebels and their families who left Douma, at the entrance of the Wafideen camp in Damascus, Syria April 12, 2018. (Reuters/Omar Sanadiki)

Three Russian journalists injured by gunfire in eastern Ghouta, Syria

Three journalists were injured when a bus carrying Russian media came under fire from unknown assailants in the Syrian city of Douma, 16 kilometers (10 miles) away from Damascus, in the eastern Ghouta region on April 11, 2018, according to news reports and the journalists’ employers.

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A man walks through the rubble of an airstrike in Saada, Yemen on April 12. One journalist was killed and three others were injured in a missile attack in the country's Bayda province. (Reuters/Naif Rahma)

One journalist killed and three injured in Yemen missile attack

Washington, D.C., April 13, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned a missile attack that killed a journalist and injured three others in Yemen today. Abdullah al-Qadry, a photographer and camera operator for the privately owned station Belqees TV, died from injuries while covering clashes in Bayda province, according to news reports.

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Palestinian demonstrators take cover during clashes with Israeli troops on the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City, April 13, 2018. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

For third week, Palestinian journalists injured by gunfire covering Gaza protests

At least two Palestinian journalists were injured while covering mass protests on the Gaza border on April 13, 2018, according to the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PJS), the journalists’ employers, and news reports.

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A wounded Palestinian demonstrator is evacuated during clashes with Israeli troops at the Israel-Gaza border at a protest demanding the right to return to their homeland, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 9, 2018. Photojournalist Yaser Murtaja was injured when a live round hit him in the abdomen while he was covering protests in the area east of Khan Younis city and died the next day from injuries, according to reports. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

CPJ calls on Israel to hold killers of Yaser Murtaja to account

Beirut, April 9, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned comments by Israel’s defense minister over the weekend that appear to justify the killing of Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja in Gaza, and called on authorities to hold to account anyone who shot journalists with live ammunition. Murtaja died on April 7 of injuries sustained the…

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Supporters of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Tahrir square after presidential election results in Cairo, Egypt on April 2, 2018. Egyptian authorities stepped up censorship during last month's presidential campaign, arresting journalists on

Egypt arrests 3 local journalists in 24 hours

Washington, D.C., April 6, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Egyptian authorities to immediately release three journalists who have been taken into police custody or disclose their whereabouts and accusations against them.

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Marc and Debra Tice, the parents of Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, hold up photos of him during a press conference at the Press Club in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 20, 2017. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

A small thing you can do to help #FreeAustinTice

In August 2012, freelance journalist Austin Tice disappeared while reporting in Syria. A brief video made public a few weeks later showed Tice as a captive. He has not been heard from since.

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Members Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces stand guard near destroyed buildings in eastern Ghouta on April 2, 2018. Two members of a Turkish-funded militant group on March 21, 2018, attacked a Syrian cameraperson as he was covering the arrival of refugee convoys from eastern Ghouta, according to reports. (Reuters/Omar Sanadiki)

Syrian journalist attacked covering arrival of Ghouta evacuees in Hama

Two members of the Turkish-funded militant group Ahrar al-Sham on March 31, 2018, attacked Syrian photographer and cameraperson Mohammed Hussein Obeid, also known as Abu Fahd al-Shami, while he was covering the arrival of refugee convoys from eastern Ghouta to the northwestern Hama province, according to the Syrian Journalists Association and Obeid.

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A Palestinian youth swings a sling shot during clashes after a demonstration near the border with Israel, east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on April 1, 2018. (AFP/Said Khatib)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering Gaza protests

Unrest continues in the Gaza Strip as Palestinians take part in weekly protests along the Gaza-Israel border. Violence has erupted repeatedly and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has fired on demonstrators and used tear gas and rubber bullets during clashes, according to news reports and the IDF. More than a dozen journalists covering the protests…

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Supporters of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Tahrir square in Cairo on April 2, 2018. Egyptian authorities have shuttered independent newspaper Masr al-Arabia, though its staff is still working remotely, according to news reports. (Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)

Egypt raids independent website, arrests editor over election coverage

Washington D.C, April 4, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the retaliatory measures taken by Egyptian authorities against the independent news website Masr al-Arabia for its coverage of last week’s presidential elections and calls on the authorities to release the website’s editor.

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Demonstrators gather outside the Kurdistan Parliament building in Erbil, Iraq, on October 29, 2017. (Reuters/Azad Lashkari)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Security in Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG)

At least 15 journalists were assaulted and seven detained while covering widespread protests across Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq between March 25 and March 27, according to CPJ research and local press freedom and human rights groups. The wave of detentions and assaults has sparked fear among local journalists and press freedom groups that Kurdish authorities will…

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