Middle East & North Africa

  
Safety Advisories
Protesters burn an Israeli flag in front of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, during a demonstration in Aukar, east of Beirut, on December 10. Rallies are being held in several countries after President Donald Trump said he will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering 2017 protests over Trump’s Jerusalem announcement

Protests and violence have broken out in several cities over President Donald Trump’s announcement on December 7 that the U.S. will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, according to reports. As well as unrest in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, protesters demonstrated in Lebanon, Turkey, Morocco, and Indonesia, reports said. Several journalists covering…

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Letters

Mauritania’s president must ensure blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed regains his freedom

The Committee to Protect Journalists and other organizations write to the president of Mauritania urging him to ensure that blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed regains his freedom.

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Alerts
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, talks to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during their meeting in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017. Sudanese authorities began confiscating all copies of four opposition newspapers after they reported critically on this meeting. (AP/Kremlin Pool/Mikhail Klimentyev)

Sudan targets newspapers, journalists with confiscations and draconian legislation

New York, December 6, 2017–Sudanese authorities should stop confiscating newspapers and drop draft laws that would further curtail press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Statements
A Houthi fighter stands on a truck outside the house of Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh after Saleh was killed, in Sanaa, Yemen December 4, 2017. (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah)

Yemeni TV guards injured, others taken hostage by Houthi forces

New York, December 4, 2017 — Gunmen from the Ansar Allah movement, commonly known as the Houthis, on December 2 stormed the Sanaa headquarters of the television channel Yemen Today and detained the channel’s employees, according to news reports. Mohammed Ghobari, a Reuters correspondent in Sanaa, told CPJ that at least three building guards were…

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Analysis
A panel at the Sporting Chance Forum in Geneva discusses the obligation of host nations to create a safe environment for the press. (Courtney C. Radsch/CPJ)

CPJ joins coalition to establish sports and human rights center

The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined a coalition of international sport organizations, civil society, and governments that are establishing an independent Centre for Sport and Human Rights. In a statement published today, the Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights, which CPJ is part of, outlined its commitment to establishing the center in 2018.

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Letters

CPJ urges Algeria’s Prime Minister to release freelance journalist and fixer Said Chitour

The Committee to Protect Journalists writes to Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia urging him to ask that his government drop the charges against and immediately release freelance journalist and fixer Said Chitour.

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Alerts
Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz addresses the Sustainable Development Summit Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, at the United Nations headquarters. Protesters have called for President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to punish freelance blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed for an article he wrote that the protesters claim is blasphemous. (AP/Frank Franklin II)

Mauritanian authorities change legal code, could retry Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed

New York, November 20, 2017–Mauritanian authorities on November 16 approved an amendment to the country’s penal code that could allow courts to retroactively retry freelance blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, who was convicted of blasphemy in 2014, and potentially re-sentence him to death, the state-owned news agency AMI and Agence France-Pressereported. The Committee to Protect…

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Alerts
The city of Baghdad is seen out the door during a helicopter on October 23, 2017. Iraqi armed forces arrested freelance journalist and political commentator Samir Obeid a day after Obeid published an article that was critical of the country's prime minister. (Reuters/Pool/Alex Brandon)

CPJ calls on Iraqi authorities to release journalist Samir Obeid

Beirut, November 9, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Iraqi authorities to release freelance journalist and political commentator Samir Obeid immediately.

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Analysis
President Rouhani, pictured in Tehran on November 6. The U.N. is due to vote next week on a resolution to promote human rights in Iran. (AFP/Atta Kenare)

CPJ calls on UN to support resolution on human rights in Iran

CPJ, along with over 30 Iranian and international human rights organizations, has called on the U.N. General Assembly to vote in favor of a proposed resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran next week.

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Reports
A vigil in Sliema, Malta, for Daphne Caruana Galizia, a critical blogger killed in a car bombing in October 2017. (AFP/Matthew Mirabelli)

Getting Away with Murder

CPJ’s 2017 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free

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