Middle East & North Africa

  
Issam Abdallah's aunt

CPJ joins call for UN commission to investigate Israel murder of journalist Issam Abdallah

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 10 press freedom and human rights organizations in a letter to the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel to investigate and help provide accountability for the murder of Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed by Israeli…

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A police vehicle drives around Cairo's Tahrir Square in November 2022. Since March 2024, Egyptian authorities have arrested four journalists and taken them to unknown locations. CPJ and other rights groups have called for their immedate release. (Photo: AFP/ Khaled Desouki)

CPJ and 34 other organizations condemn spate of Egyptian journalist arrests

On September 9, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 34 human rights and press freedom organizations released a joint statement condemning the recent arrests and enforced disappearance of four Egyptian journalists — Ashraf Omar, Khaled Mamdouh, Ramadan Gouida, and Yasser Abu Al-Ela — and called for their immediate release. The statement also urged Egyptian authorities…

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Paramilitary group kidnaps, demands ransom for Sudanese journalist 

New York, August 29, 2024—Armed men affiliated with the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took freelance journalist Aladdin Abu Harba from his home in the East Nile region of Khartoum, an area under RSF control, on Friday, August 23, and detained him in an unknown location, according to news reports and a local journalist…

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Protesters lift portraits of slain journalists Hero Bahadin (left) and Gulistan Tara in Sulaimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan, on August 24, 2024.

CPJ submits report on Iraq to UN’s human rights review

The Committee to Protect Journalists has submitted a report on the state of press freedom and journalist safety in Iraq and semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan to the United Nations Human Rights Council ahead of its January to February 2025 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session. The U.N. mechanism is a peer review of each member state’s human…

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Syrian journalist Bakr al-Kassem, who freelances for AFP news agency, was detained at a checkpoint on August 26, his house was searched, and his equipment confiscated. It is unclear why he is being held. (Photo: Courtesy of Nabiha Taha)

Syrian journalist detained without explanation, held by Turkish intelligence

Editor’s note: Bakr al-Kassem was released without charge on September 2, according to media reports. Beirut, August 27, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Monday’s detention of freelance journalist Bakr al-Kassem in northern Syria and his transfer to Turkish intelligence custody, and calls for his immediate release. “We are deeply concerned that Syrian opposition…

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CPJ, others urge EU to act against Israel’s unprecedented journalist killings, press freedom violations

The Committee to Protect Journalists and 59 partners on Monday, August 26, wrote to EU High Representative Josep Borrell, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, and EU member state foreign ministries asking that the EU “take action against the Israeli authorities’ unprecedented killing of journalists and other violations of media freedom.” The letter condemns widespread and…

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A strike hit the car of three Chatr Multimedia Production Company journalists, killing video editor Hero Bahadin (left) and Turkish reporter Gulistan Tara (center) in Sulaymaniyah province, Iraq, on August 23, 2024. Rebin Bakir (right), a video editor and social media officer, was seriously injured. (Photos: Chatr Multimedia Production Company)

2 journalists killed, 1 injured in drone strike in Iraqi Kurdistan

Sulaymaniyah, August 23, 2024—A suspected Turkish drone strike killed two journalists and injured another in the Said Sadiq district of Sulaymaniyah province on Friday.  “We are deeply saddened by the tragic August 23 drone strike that killed two journalists and injured a third in Iraqi Kurdistan,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Turkish authorities should swiftly…

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Amir Al-Khafaji and Avin Atta

Iraqi security forces assault 2 news crews covering protests

Sulaymaniyah, August 20, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi security forces to explain the assault of two TV crews while they were covering protests in separate parts of the country. “CPJ is deeply concerned by the attacks on the Zoom News TV crew in Sulaymaniyah and the Alsumaria TV crew in Baghdad,” said…

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Palestinians inspect the vehicle in which Al Jazeera reporter Ismail Al Ghoul and camera operator Rami Al Refee were killed in an Israeli strike west of Gaza City on July 31, 2024. Israel alleges that Al Ghoul was a Hamas member who took part in the October 2023 raid that started the Israel-Gaza war. (Photo: Reuters/Ayman Al Hassi)

CPJ denounces Israel’s smearing of killed Palestinian journalists with unsubstantiated ‘terrorist’ labels

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Israel to stop making unproven claims that journalists slain by its forces are terrorists or engaging in militant activity, and demands international, swift, and independent investigations into these killings. “Even before the start of the Israel-Gaza war, CPJ had documented Israel’s pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists…

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CPJ concerned about safety of Al Jazeera Gaza reporter Anas Al Sharif after IDF comments

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of Al Jazeera Arabic northern Gaza correspondent Anas Al Sharif after an Israel Defense Forces’ spokesperson accused him of “presenting a lie” in his coverage of Israel’s August 10 airstrike that killed dozens of Gazans in a school building housing Palestinians displaced by the…

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