Middle East & North Africa

  

Palestinian journalism student arrested from his home

Israeli soldiers arrested 21-year-old Palestinian journalist Musaab Khamees Qafesha from his home in the southern West Bank town of Hebron on March 29, 2016, and held him at the Etzion detention center, in the southern West Bank, for eight days, before transferring him to Ofer Prison, south of Ramallah, according to news reports.

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Sudanese journalist held without charge for a month after covering protests

New York, May 12, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Sudanese authorities to release Ahmed Zuheir Daoud, a journalist who has been detained for nearly a month without charge. Daoud was arrested on April 13 while reporting on student protests for Al-Midan, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Iman Othman Ali, told CPJ yesterday.

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Egyptian court recommends death penalty for three journalists

Washington, May 11, 2016 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today strongly condemned an Egyptian court’s recommendation to sentence three journalists to death. They were convicted of helping to smuggle secret documents to Qatari intelligence officers and the Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera. The journalists include two Al-Jazeera employees.

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Spanish journalists return home after abduction in Syria

Three Spanish freelance journalists flew back to Madrid on May 8, 2016, 10 months after Islamist militants abducted them from the Syrian city of Aleppo in July 2015.

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Journalists carry Yehia Qallash, head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, at a protest against restrictions on the press in Cairo on May 4. (Reuters)

Egyptian government clash with Journalists Syndicate marks turning point in censorship fight

A standoff this week between Egyptian authorities and the country’s influential Journalists Syndicate could mark a turning point in the fight for media control that has raged since before President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took office.

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Egyptian journalists protest the arrest of their colleagues at the General Prosecutor's office in central Cairo, April 28, 2016 (Mohammed Abdel Ghany/Reuters)

Egypt police raid Journalists’ Syndicate, arrest two journalists

New York, May 2, 2016–Egyptian authorities should immediately release Amr Badr, Mahmoud al-Sakka, and all journalists jailed for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police on Sunday raided the Journalists’ Syndicate in Cairo, where the two were staging a sit-in protest, and arrested them, according to their employer and news reports. Today…

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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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