Middle East & North Africa

  
Police used sound grenades Wednesday to disperse an anti-government rally demanding the release of human rights activists in Manama. (Reuters/Darren Whiteside)

CPJ in joint call for release of bloggers, activists in Bahrain

CPJ is among 50 organizations that have signed a joint letter to Bahrain’s king calling for the release of detained bloggers, activists, and human rights defenders and to drop all charges that violate the right to peaceful expression ahead of the Formula One motor racing event to be held in Manama on April 22.

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Video: Getting Away With Murder

CPJ’s María Salazar-Ferro names the 12 countries where journalists are murdered regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. Where are leaders failing to uphold the law? Where are conditions getting better? And where is free expression in danger? (4:46) Read CPJ’s 2012 Impunity Index. And visit our Global Campaign Against Impunity and see how…

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Getting Away With Murder

CPJ’s 2012 Impunity Index spotlights countrieswhere journalists are slain and killers go free

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Iranian regime continues to crack down on press

New York, April 17, 2012–Sustaining their years-long campaign against the press, Iranian authorities have sentenced one journalist to prison and summoned another to serve a jail term, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to release imprisoned journalists who are being held away from their families and in deprivation.

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Yemeni journalist Mohammed al-Maqaleh was attacked and threatened by armed men on Saturday. (AFP/Mohamed Huwais)

Armed men attack Yemeni journalist in Sana’a

New York, April 12, 2012–Prominent Yemeni journalist Muhammad al-Maqaleh was assaulted by armed men affiliated with a tribal group while visiting a government official’s house, the journalist told the Committee to Protect Journalists today. Al-Maqaleh has widely reported on the activities of tribal groups in Yemen.

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Police attacked journalists and clashed with protesters in a Martyrs' Day demonstration on Monday. (AFP/Fethi Belaid)

Police attack Tunisian journalists covering protest

New York, April 10, 2012–Tunisian authorities must immediately investigate attacks against journalists covering a Martyrs’ Day protest in the Tunisian capital on Monday, the first series of anti-press attacks that the Committee to Protect Journalists has documented in three months, CPJ said today.

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Lebanese cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed in Syria today. (AFP/Anwar Amro)

In Lebanon, cameraman killed by Syrian gunfire

New York, April 9, 2012–Syrian security forces shot and killed a Lebanese cameraman today as he was working in the northern Lebanese town of Wadi Khaled near the Syrian border, according to the journalist’s employer and news reports citing Lebanese officials. The cross-border death comes on the same day that Syrian security forces fired shots…

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Journalists with Al-Tayar protest government censorship of their paper. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

In Sudan, a new strategy to censor the press

Sudanese authorities have a long history of closing newspapers and silencing journalists. But the government security agents who carry out official censorship have launched a new strategy this year that focuses on economic impoverishment–leaving newspapers more vulnerable than ever.

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Kamiran Salaheddin, a TV anchor for the Salaheddin Channel, was killed by a car bomb in Tikrit on Monday. (AFP/Sabah Arar)

Iraqi TV anchor killed by car bomb

New York, April 4, 2012–Iraqi journalist Kamiran Salaheddin was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded late Monday, according to news reports. CPJ is investigating the circumstances of the attack to determine whether it was related to his work.

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A still from one of Hassan's videos of a protest in Manama last year. Hassan was killed by an unknown assailant on Saturday. (YouTube)

Bahraini videographer killed while filming protest

New York, April 4, 2012–A Bahraini videographer died Saturday morning after being shot while filming a protest outside the capital, Manama, according to local journalists and news reports.

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