Middle East & North Africa

  

Algerian appeals court increases prison sentence of journalist Ihsane el-Kadi

New York, June 20, 2023 – Algerian authorities should immediately release journalist Ihsane el-Kadi and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On Sunday, June 18, an appeals court in Algiers increased from five to seven years a sentence for el-Kadi, editor-in-chief and director of local independent broadcaster Radio M…

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CPJ’s support to exiled journalists jumped 227% in 3 years, reflecting global press freedom crisis

Keep closely connected to your homeland and don’t despair: that is advice Syrian journalist Okba Mohammad said he would offer to Afghan journalists who fled after the August 2021 Taliban takeover. Mohammad knows firsthand the challenges of exile. In 2019, he made a new life in Spain after fleeing the Syrian civil war with CPJ’s…

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Israel Defense Forces shoot 2 Palestinian photojournalists with rubber bullets

New York, June 8, 2023—Israel Defense Force officials must investigate the Wednesday, June 7, shootings of photojournalists Momen Somrain and Rabie Al-Munir with rubber bullets and make public its findings, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.  IDF soldiers shot the journalists with rubber-coated bullets while they reported on an IDF demolition of a terrorism…

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Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani detained on undisclosed charges

New York, June 8, 2023—Iranian authorities must release cartoonist Atena Farghadani and stop their unabated efforts to silence commentators and members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.  On Wednesday, June 7, authorities arrested Farghadani at Evin Prison in the capital city of Tehran after she responded to a summons to appear…

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Sudanese paramilitary soldiers detain journalist Nader Shulkawi

New York, June 1, 2023—The Sudanese Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group must immediately release journalist Nader Shulkawi, and all parties to the conflict in the country must stop harassing members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On Tuesday, May 30, RSF soldiers detained Shulkawi in the city of Omdurman, northwest of…

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Journalists shot, beaten, and harassed covering conflict between Sudan’s rival military groups

On May 1, freelance Sudanese photographer Faiz Abubaker was filming clashes in Khartoum when, he says, he was shot in the back by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group vying for power with the Sudanese military. The RSF then held him for three hours at a checkpoint, where he was threatened at knife point and…

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Sudanese paramilitary soldiers assault at least 3 journalists, hold 2 overnight

New York, May 23, 2023—All parties to the conflict in Sudan must stop detaining and assaulting members of the press for their work and ensure that journalists can cover newsworthy events without fear, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. Since May 16, soldiers with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have beaten and robbed at…

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Tunisian court increases prison sentence for journalist Khalifa Guesmi from 1 to 5 years

New York, May 18, 2023 – Tunisian authorities should immediately drop all charges against journalist Khalifa Guesmi and ensure he is not imprisoned for his work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On Tuesday, May 16, an appeals court in Tunis sentenced Guesmi, a correspondent for the local independent radio station and news website Mosaique…

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Media coverage of CPJ ‘Deadly Pattern’ report on journalists killed by Israeli military

On May 9, 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists published “Deadly Pattern,” a report on the Israeli military’s killing of 20 journalists in 22 years — and how no one has been held accountable for those deaths. Some of the global coverage of the CPJ report:

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A deadly reporting field for Palestinian journalists 

Palestinians make up 90% of the journalists and media workers killed by the IDF in CPJ’s database. (The other 10% were foreign correspondents; no Israelis were killed.) Those figures are partly a reflection of broader trends in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; over the last 15 years, 21 times more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed, according…

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