Middle East & North Africa

  

CPJ highlights challenges to female journalists, reporter released from prison, CPJ hosts book talk

CPJ Newsletter: May edition CPJ publishes annual edition of Attacks on the Press On April 27, CPJ launched its annual publication of Attacks on the Press. This edition, which focuses on gender and media freedom worldwide, highlights the challenges faced by female journalists who fight to report the news against all odds. The book–and the…

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Iraq withdraws Al-Jazeera’s license

New York, April 28, 2016 – Iraqi authorities should immediately restore Al-Jazeera’s operating license, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Qatari broadcaster reported that Iraqi authorities informed it Wednesday that its license to operate had been withdrawn.

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From High Profile to Exile

Heba Alshibani did not set out to become a journalist. She had expected to become an academic, as many members of her Libyan family had before the February 2011 uprising that led to the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi. But when the violence did not abate after Qaddafi’s overthrow, Alshibani witnessed events that she felt compelled…

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The Struggle for Candid Interviews

Inside a four-room apartment in Antakya, Turkey, a town on the border with Syria, more than a dozen men sat on mattresses on the floor. It was just past 10 p.m. and the soldiers, all men in the Free Syrian Army, the rebel opposition group in Syria, were busy coordinating their next trip into the…

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My Islamic State Social Network

My first conversation with Islamic State was about my reporting. I had just shared an article I’d written about the terrorist group recruiting Western fighters on my Twitter when I saw that someone using the Twitter handle Abu Omar had also posted a link to the piece on his own account. His profile photo unabashedly…

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CPJ condemns Iran’s jailing of journalists

New York, April 26, 2016 — The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns an Iranian court’s sentencing of three reformist journalists. Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced the three to between five and 10 years in prison on charges of “acting against national security,” according to press reports.

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Young people run from police tear gas amid calls for protests in downtown Cairo, April 25, 2016. (Mohamed El-Shahed/AFP)

Scores of journalists harassed, detained amid Egypt protests

New York, April 25, 2016–Egyptian authorities should immediately cease detaining and harassing journalists, and allow them to do their jobs, including allowing them to cover street protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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CPJ concerned by reports of Egyptian accusations against Reuters

New York, April 22, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports in the Egyptian media that authorities have accused Reuters of “spreading false news” in a report on the death of an Italian student. The press reports could not be verified and Reuters said it had not received notification of legal action.

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Mauritanian appeals court upholds death sentence for blogger

New York, April 21, 2016– An appeals court in Nouadhibou today upheld the death sentence for Mauritanian blogger and freelance journalist Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, who was convicted of apostasy in 2014 for an article he wrote, according to news reports.

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Australian television journalists detained for two weeks in Lebanon

Four television journalists with the Australian broadcaster Channel Nine were released from a Lebanese prison on April 20, 2016, after two weeks in detention, Beirut’s English-language Daily Star newspaper reported.

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