Middle East & North Africa

  

Israeli police attack journalists covering protest

Israeli security forces knocked down reporters and trampled at least one journalist while dispersing a peaceful protest in Jerusalem on April 29, 2017, according to video, photographs, and journalists who were present.

Read More ›

Bahraini journalists harassed, banned from travel

New York, May 1, 2017–Bahraini prosecutors and security officials should cease harassing journalists and should lift travel bans imposed on two reporters in the past week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Prosecutors summoned three journalists for questioning in the week before the U.N. Human Rights Commission conducted its Universal Periodic Review of the…

Read More ›

An undated family photo shows Mohamed al-Fakharany, front right, and his brother, Abdullah, left. A verdict is due in Abdullah al-Fakharany's case in May. The journalist has been imprisoned since 2013. (Al-Fakharany family)

Families of jailed journalists in Egypt await outcome of latest trials

Every two weeks Mohamed al-Fakharany prepares to visit his brother, Abdullah al-Fakharany, in prison. He packs food, clothes, books, and, most importantly, written responses to his older brother’s letters. Mohamed al-Fakharany, who told CPJ that he has never missed a visit, was only 11 when his brother– the executive director of opposition news outlet Rassd–was…

Read More ›

Issa Saharkhiz, in an undated family photo. The freelance journalist was sentenced to one year in prison the day after being freed. (Mehdi Saharkhiz)

Iran frees Issa Saharkhiz then sentences him to one year in jail

New York, April 28, 2017–Iranian authorities should immediately drop all charges against freelance journalist Issa Saharkhiz, who was sentenced yesterday to one year in prison, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The sentence was handed down the day after Saharkhiz was released from jail on a separate charge, according to the journalist’s son and…

Read More ›

Ahmed Farouk is jailed pending trial on suspicion that he played a role in leaking audio recordings purportedly featuring Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, shown here in an August 6, 2015, ceremony inaugurating improvements to the Suez Canal, to a pro-opposition satellite TV station. (Reuters/Amr Dalsh)

Egyptian video journalist jailed pending trial for purported leaks

Ahmed Farouk was arrested at Cairo International Airport on October 31, 2016, when he tried to board a flight to Guangzhou, China, the Swiss Organization for the Protection of Human Rights reported.

Read More ›

Being a Target

A reporter learns how to dodge terrorist threats to get the story By Rukmini Callimachi The convoy of cars flying al-Qaeda’s black flag swept across northern Mali in 2012. Within weeks, it felt like a curtain had been drawn.

Read More ›

Zone of Silence

The public is robbed of information when journalists are murdered By Robert Mahoney Journalist Avijit Roy founded the blog “Mukto-Mona,” or Free Thinker, as a forum for free expression and ideas that challenged the growing religious intolerance in his native Bangladesh. His blog for intellectual freedom cost him his life.

Read More ›

A Loyal Press

Independence means isolation for journalists in Sisi’s Egypt By Ursula Lindsey When President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took office in Egypt in 2014, after leading the army’s ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, he promised to restore peace and prosperity through strong leadership.

Read More ›

Where I’ve Never Set Foot

Barred from Syria, a journalist must make sense of what she’s told By Alessandria Masi The morning after the attack, my deputy editor and I lit cigarettes as we squatted on the green couch in our closet-size Beirut office, hanging out the window and talking about what we thought had really happened in Syria.

Read More ›

Houthis fighters secure a road between Hodeidah and Sanaa in Yemen on April 19, 2017. Journalists have been threatened and attacked in areas controlled by the Houthis. (AP/Hani Mohammed)

Collapse of state institutions leaves Yemeni journalists vulnerable

A journalist dies mysteriously in Yemen after receiving threats because of his work, and the resulting autopsy raises more questions than answers. A columnist in the same country is sentenced to death on espionage charges in an opaque trial.

Read More ›