Middle East & North Africa

Ahead of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s planned visit to Washington on November 18, 2025, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 10 other human rights and press freedom organizations released a joint statement calling on the U.S. government, including Congress, to address Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses. The statement noted that this will be…

Paris, November 7, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iranian authorities to immediately release editor and economist Parviz Sedaghat and halt their escalating campaign against journalists, academics, and writers commenting on social and economic injustices. Sedaghat, editor-in-chief of Naghde Eqtesad Siyasi (Political Economy Critique), an independent platform that publishes critical essays on the economy…

Nazareth, November 4, 2025—Israeli police banned at least 10 Palestinian journalists from Jerusalem’s disputed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during Ramadan this year, CPJ has found, in what many view as a deliberate effort to censor coverage of the holy site. Intimidatory tactics against the press have increased in the two years since the start of the…

New York, October 31, 2025 — As paramilitary forces seized control of Sudan’s El-Fasher in late October, its journalists have become both witnesses and victims of the unfolding horrors.  The Committee to Protect Journalists has received reports from several rights groups that 13 journalists and media workers in the North Darfur capital — among the…

New York, October 30, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by reports emerging from El-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state, which the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has captured in recent days, where journalists, media workers and other civilians are facing an unprecedented wave of violence and impunity.  Over the weekend,…

New York, October 28, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists renewed its call for an independent and transparent investigation into Israel’s killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, after a news report suggested the United States watered down its conclusions in an assessment of the circumstances surrounding her death. Abu Akleh, one of the…

New York, October 27, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that freelance Sudanese journalist Muammar Ibrahim was detained by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during the paramilitary group’s advance on the besieged city of El-Fasher in North Darfur, and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. A video that first circulated on…

New York, October 23, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls on the international community to pressure Israel to immediately lift all restrictions preventing journalists from entering Gaza, after the Supreme Court today granted the state an additional 30 days to respond to a petition challenging the two-year ban on entry.  Israel’s request…

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, October 21, 2025 — As a fragile ceasefire pushes through a second week, Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza still face immense risks. Despite a pause in large-scale fighting, attacks, detention and threats to press freedom persist. While seven journalists were released as part of the ceasefire that began on October…

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is renewing its urgent call for Israel to provide immediate, independent, and unrestricted international media access to Gaza. On October 5, 2025, CPJ took a decisive stand for press freedom by filing an amicus brief in support of the Foreign Press Association in Israel’s second petition to the Israeli…