Middle East & North Africa

  

CPJ alerts Rice to threats in Tunisia

Dear Secretary Rice: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to express its deep concern about the safety of Slim Boukhdhir, a Tunisian Internet journalist who has faced increasing harassment since he echoed your recent call to President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to take further steps toward media and Internet reform.

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Tunisia Report: The Smiling Oppressor: Audio Slideshow

The backstory of CPJ’s report on Tunisia

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Tunisia Report: The Smiling Oppressor: Recommendations

To the government of TunisiaCPJ calls on the government of Tunisia to implement the following recommendations aimed at bringing the country’s practices in line with international standards.

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Cleric issues fatwa against journalists and writers  

New York, September 22, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about an edict issued Saturday by a top Saudi Muslim cleric, who said that writers who challenge or criticize religious sheikhs should be fired from their jobs, flogged, and jailed. Sheikh Abdallah Ben Jabreen, a former member of the Saudi Arabia’s Establishment of…

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Recently freed journalist is abducted, threatened

New York, September 22, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the abduction for nearly two hours on Saturday of Internet journalist Slim Boukhdhir, who has been continuously harassed since he was freed in July after a politically motivated imprisonment. Boukhdhir, who spent eight months in prison for writing articles critical of President Zine…

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CPJ to honor five international journalists

IPFA Awards 2008 To Attend the Awards Dinner (PDF) Bilal Hussein Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad Andrew Mwenda Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez Beatrice Mtetwa New York, September 16, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor courageous journalists from Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, and Cuba with its 2008 International Press Freedom Awards at a ceremony in November. Bilal…

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Bilal Hussein, Photographer, The Associated Press

To Attend the Benefit Dinner (PDF)| Awards 2008 |Announcement of the Awards | Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad | Andrew Mwenda | Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez | Beatrice Mtetwa Bilal Hussein, 37, made his mark as a photographer for The Associated Press during the 2004 battle of Fallujah. The city, a stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq and its…

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Cleric issues fatwa against TV station owners

New York, September 18, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the religious edict issued on September 9 by a top Saudi cleric calling for the death of owners of satellite TV stations that air “immoral” soap operas.   Sheikh Saleh al-Lihedan’s fatwa came in response to a question asked ‎on Radio Quran, a…

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Court of appeal overturns blogger’s sentence

New York, September 18, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes a Moroccan court decision today that overturns a two-year prison sentence and a fine against blogger and journalist Mohamed Erraji. On September 9, the court in Agadir, in southwest Morocco, convicted Erraji in a 10-minute trial¸ sentencing him to prison and a fine of 5,000…

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Fixer released, another held

New York, September 17, 2008–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that authorities in Yemen continue to hold a fixer in custody while releasing another. The two were picked up in July with a reporter for the U.S.-based television network HDNet. Mohammed Ahmed Hassan al-Bokhaiti, an interpreter, was released on Sunday after spending almost two…

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