Middle East & North Africa

  

On Assignment: Covering Conflicts Safely

CPJ RELEASES JOURNALIST SECURITY HANDBOOK New York, February 27, 2003–In an effort to prepare journalists for potentially hazardous reporting duties in conflict zones, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today released an online journalist security handbook, titled “On Assignment: Covering Conflict Safely” (click here). The handbook, which is geared toward editors and journalists covering conflict,…

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Death sentence against Jordanian journalist upheld

New York, January 25, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about an appeals court ruling yesterday in Qatar’s capital, Doha, confirming a death sentence against Jordanian journalist Firas al-Majali on charges of espionage. Al-Majali, a news editor for Qatari state television, has been in detention since January 2002. He was originally sentenced to…

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UNITED STATES, IRAQ: U.S. expels Iraqi reporter; Iraq retaliates in tit-for-tat move

New York, February 18, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned both that the U.S. government expelled an Iraqi journalist, and that Iraqi authorities responded by ordering a U.S. television correspondent to leave the country. On February 13, New York­based Iraqi News Agency correspondent Mohammed Alawi received a letter from the U.S. Mission to…

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TWO JOURNALISTS RELEASED IN JORDANOne remains in jail

New York, February 18, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is encouraged that two journalists sentenced to prison yesterday by Jordan’s State Security Court were released this evening. However, CPJ is gravely concerned that a third journalist remains in jail. On February 17, Nasser Qamash, Roman Haddad, and Mohannad Mubaidin, editor-in-chief, managing editor, and writer,…

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Al-Jazeera barred from covering the hajj

New York, February 13, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed that the Saudi Arabian government refused to allow the Qatar-based Arabic language satellite station Al-Jazeera to cover the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the hajj. According to a source at the station, the nine-member crew slated to cover the pilgrimage had…

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Your Excellency: As the honorary co-chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and a journalist who was kidnapped and detained for nearly seven years, I wish to express my profound concern about the ongoing imprisonment of our colleague Zouhair Yahyaoui, a 35-year-old Tunisian Internet journalist who was unjustly jailed last summer. Yahyaoui is one…

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New York, February 10, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) honorary co-chairman Terry Anderson sent a letter today to Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali calling for the release of Tunisian Internet journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui, jailed since June 2002, and renewing calls for the release of Hamadi Jebali, the editor of Al-Fajr, the weekly newspaper…

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Two television stations and one radio station closed in Hebron

New York, January 31, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by Israel’s closure of two local television stations and a radio station in the West Bank town of Hebron during an incursion into the West Bank. On January 30, about 25 Israeli troops entered the building housing the private Al-Nawras TV and Al-Marah…

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Leading reformist daily suspended for 10 days

New York, January 24, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the 10-day suspension of Iran’s top selling daily, Hamshahri, by Tehran’s Press Court on January 22. The judiciary suspended the reformist leaning Hamshahri after the paper failed to print a letter of reply submitted for publication by Ali Reza Mahjoub, head of Iran’s Trade…

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Soldiers assault photographers

New York, January 24, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the assault earlier this week on two Palestinian photographers by Israeli border police in the West Bank city of Nablus. On Monday, January 21, The Associated Press’ Nasser Ishtayeh and Jaafar Ishtayeh, with Agence France-Presse (AFP), were preparing to photograph an Israeli…

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