Middle East & North Africa

  
CPJ

Speak Justice campaign fights impunity in press murders

The tortured and decapitated body of 39-year-old María Elizabeth Macías Castro was found on a Saturday evening in September 2011. It had been dumped by the side of a road in Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican border town ravaged by the war on drugs. Macías, a freelance journalist, wrote about organized crime on social media under…

Read More ›

Journalists continue to pay heavy price in Syria

New York, December 4, 2012–An editor for a state-run paper and a reporter for a pro-opposition weekly died in Syria in recent days, lifting the death toll in the world’s most dangerous place for the press.

Read More ›

In protest of the proposed constitution, the front page of Al-Masry al-Youm has a black background and the headline, "No to dictatorship." (AP/Nasser Nasser)

Proposed Egyptian constitution would limit media freedom

New York, December 4, 2012–The proposed Egyptian constitution would impose several new restrictions on press freedom–including the creation of a new government regulator and new governmental authority to shut media outlets–while doing nothing to halt the criminal prosecution of journalists, which was a hallmark of the Hosni Mubarak regime, the Committee to Protect Journalists said…

Read More ›

Israel must explain targeting of journalists in Gaza

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu: The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned that Israeli airstrikes targeted individual journalists and media facilities in the Gaza Strip between November 18 and 20. Journalists and media outlets are protected under international law in military conflict.

Read More ›

This image provided by Edlib News Network shows an anti-Syrian regime protester holding up a placard reading: 'the victory fingers over the Place (the presidential palace),' during a demonstration at Binnish village, Idlib province, on Friday. (AP/Edlib News Network ENN)

Syria’s desperate move to cut links won’t succeed

The Syrian Internet, like the country, appears to have been collapsing into a patchwork of unconnected systems for some time. I spent time talking to Syrians tech activists this week in Tunisia before Thursday’s shutdown, and their reports from the front painted a picture of two different networks.

Read More ›

Syria must restore Internet access immediately

New York, November 29, 2012 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the Internet and cell phone shutdown in Syria today which disconnects Syrians from the world as they endure conflict.

Read More ›

Two more journalists killed in Syria

New York, November 26, 2012–At least two journalists have been killed over the past five days while documenting unrest in Syria, according to news reports.

Read More ›

To fight impunity, cycle of fear, silence must be broken

Three years ago, on November 23, 2009, 30 journalists and two media workers were brutally killed in the southern Philippine city of Maguindanao while travelling in a convoy with the family and supporters of a local politician. To this day, not a single suspect has been convicted, though local authorities have identified close to 200.…

Read More ›

Three journalists killed in airstrikes in Gaza

New York, November 20, 2012–Two Israeli airstrikes killed three journalists in the Gaza Strip today, according to news reports. The fatal attacks followed a series of Israeli strikes earlier in the week that injured at least nine journalists and damaged news outlets.

Read More ›

Firefighters extinguish a blaze on the tower housing local and international media on the Gaza Strip. (AFP/Mahmud Hams)

In Gaza, news outlets targeted, journalists injured

New York, November 19, 2012–Israeli authorities must immediately halt airstrikes targeting news media offices in the Gaza Strip, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today following a series of strikes that injured at least nine journalists and damaged several offices.

Read More ›