Middle East & North Africa

  

CPJ calls on Mauritania to release blogger who faces death penalty

In a joint letter, CPJ calls on Mauritania’s President to help secure the release of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, also known as Mohamed Ould M’Kaitir. Mauritania’s Supreme Court is due to review Mohamed’s case on November 15. The blogger faces the death penalty.

Read More ›

Posters calling for the release of photojournalists Mohammad al-Batawi, right, and Shawkan, are held up in Cairo. A U.N. working group says that Shawkan's detention is arbitrary. (AP/Amr Nabil)

In Egypt, censorship, an arrest, and court hearings for journalists

Restrictions against the press continue in Egypt, with ongoing trials of journalists, some of whom have been in detention for more than three years, allegations that a TV station was ordered to drop a planned broadcast of an interview with a former official, and a reporter detained while trying to cover a sensitive story. Egypt…

Read More ›

Getting Away With Murder

CPJ’s 2016 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free By Elisabeth Witchel, CPJ Impunity Campaign Consultant Published October 27, 2016. Some of the highest rates of impunity in the murders of journalists can be attributed to killings by Islamist militant groups, CPJ found in its latest Global Impunity…

Read More ›

Kurdish fighters attack a building where militants were believed to be hiding in Kirkuk, October 21, 2016. (Reuters/Ako Rasheed)

Iraqi journalist killed in Kirkuk fighting

New York, October 21, 2016 – An Iraqi journalist was killed today covering fighting between militants from the Islamic State group and Kurdish security forces, according to news reports. The killing came as at least seven journalists were injured in the past two days while covering the joint offensive to reclaim the city of Mosul…

Read More ›

Number of journalists who covered corruption who were killed in relation to their work since 1992, by country. (Mehdi Rahmati/CPJ research)

Protecting journalists who cover corruption is good for the bottom line

Corruption is one of the most dangerous beats for journalists, and one of the most important for holding those in power to account. There is growing international recognition that corruption is also one of the biggest impediments to poverty reduction and good governance. This is why journalists on this beat must be protected, including by…

Read More ›

Jeroen Oerlemans, a freelance photojournalist, was killed covering clashes in Sirte, Libya. (Stanislav Krupar)

Dutch photojournalist Jeroen Oerlemans killed in Libya

New York, October 2, 2016 – Dutch freelance photojournalist Jeroen Oerlemans was killed today in the Libyan city of Sirte while covering clashes between Islamic State fighters and forces loyal to the Libyan Army, according to Dutch and Libyan news outlets.

Read More ›

Journalists protest the jailing of their colleagues to mark World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2016, at the Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo. (Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Four journalists arrested in Egypt

New York, September 30, 2016 – Egyptian authorities should immediately drop all charges against four journalists arrested in Cairo this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The three journalists still in detention told their lawyer security forces had beaten and electrocuted them during interrogation.

Read More ›

Oman sentences three journalists to prison

New York, September 26, 2016 – An Omani court today sentenced three journalists from the independent newspaper Azamn to prison and ordered the newspaper closed after it published allegations of judicial corruption, according to human rights groups and news reports.

Read More ›

Jordanian commentator Nahed Hattar shot to death in Jordan

Washington, September 25, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s assassination of controversial Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar outside an Amman court, where he was facing charges of “insulting religion” in connection with a cartoon he shared on Facebook, according to news reports. Relatives at the scene apprehended his killer, the reports said.

Read More ›

Residents of Tehran read the front pages of newspapers in this December 4, 2011, file photo. (Reuters/Raheb Homavandi)

Two journalists arrested in Iran

New York, September 22, 2016 – Iranian authorities should immediately release two reformist journalists arrested in recent days and stop jailing the media for doing their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At the time of his arrest, pro-government media described Sadra Mohaqeq, the editor of the reformist newspaper Shargh Daily, as an…

Read More ›