Middle East & North Africa

As part of their military campaign in Gaza, Israeli forces seem to be targeting Hamas-affiliated media outlets, a practice that is of concern to CPJ. The Hamas-run broadcaster Al-Aqsa television was bombed on December 28, and then on January 5, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) appear to have hit the newsweekly Al-Risala as well its…

Dear Minister Barak: The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on you to explain why you have imposed blanket restrictions on international media entering the Gaza Strip and certain areas inside Israel along the Gaza border.

New York, January 6, 2009–The Israeli military must put an end to targeting Palestinian media in the Gaza Strip and allow international journalists to enter Gaza to cover the conflict, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

The Associated Press has coverage today of CPJ’s tally of journalists killed for their work in 2008. The final number rests at 41, with 22 cases still unconfirmed. We released a video remembering those who died in the past year, as well as an in-depth report on those killed in 2008.

New York, January 5, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for a transparent investigation into the shooting of an Iraqi video editor by U.S. military forces on January 1.

CPJ’s Joel Simon, Robert Mahoney, and Nina Ognianova pay tribute to journalists who died in 2008. The toll was highest in Iraq, but conflicts in South Asia and the Caucasus were deadly as well. Impunity in journalist murders in Russia, Philippines, and Mexico were top issues.

New York, December 31, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the intimidation of Tunisian journalists who tried to cover efforts Tuesday by the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) to demonstrate against Israeli attacks on Gaza. Two journalists were assaulted and three faced harassment in Tunis, according to several CPJ interviews.

Dear Defense Minister Barak: The Committee to Protect Journalists urgently demands an explanation for the bombing of Al-Aqsa TV headquarter in Gaza City by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday. We are also dismayed by the army’s decision to declare Gaza’s northern boundary with Israel and other parts of the territory “closed military zones.”

New York, December 23, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the decision by an Algerian court to sentence an editor-in-chief and a journalist at the Algiers-based independent daily El Watan to a three-month jail term each for defamation on Monday.

It has been 14 months since my colleague at The Washington Post Salih Saif Aldin was shot and killed. Time flew by fast and the path for journalists in Iraq is yet to be safe. Shootings, kidnappings, and murder in cold blood have not stopped in my war-torn country.