Middle East & North Africa

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, August 20, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Kurdish authorities to immediately release freelance Iraqi Kurdish journalist Sherwan Sherwani after an Erbil court handed him an additional four years and five months in prison.  “Sentencing Sherwani for a third time on dubious charges and imposing the maximum penalty shows the authorities’ determination to silence his critical voice and keep him behind…

Washington, D.C., August 19, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the August 16 arrest of Yemen News Agency journalist Hamoud Hazz’a after security forces raided his home in Al-Jufaina camp, Marib Governorate, confiscated his mobile phone and laptop, and took him to an undisclosed location without legal justification. Before his arrest, Hazz’a warned in an August 16 Facebook post that security personnel…

CPJ joined 103 global organizations in a letter calling on Israel to stop weaponizing bureaucratic registration rules that have prevented most major international non-governmental organizations (INGO) from delivering a single truck of lifesaving supplies into Gaza since March 2, while Palestinians starve. Millions of dollars’ worth of food, medicines, water, and shelter items lie stranded…

New York, August 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled by Israel’s killing in Gaza on Sunday of four Al Jazeera staff — correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal —  and two freelancers, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammad al-Khaldi. The six journalists were killed and two others were injured by a targeted…

Washington, D.C., August 8, 2025—Qatari authorities should reconsider the implications of an amendment to the country’s cybercrime law, which could be used to prosecute journalists, photojournalists, and bloggers for doing their jobs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. On August 4, Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani approved an amendment to a 2014 cybercrime law that adds a new provision that criminalizes publishing…

Journalists in southern Syria are being chased, detained and intimidated by live fire by members of the Israeli Defense Forces, according to reporters who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The months-long escalation of harassment raises concerns about press freedom and has sometimes forced journalists to play a dangerous game of hide-and-seek to protect…

CPJ joined 15 other media and human rights organizations in a joint letter demanding an end to the forced starvation and targeted killing of journalists in Gaza by Israel. The letter calls on governments, international organizations, the media, and civil society to ensure access for food and medical supplies; end to the blockade on foreign…

Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, August 5, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iraqi authorities to free Al-Baghdadia TV’s director and presenter Ali Al-Dhabhawi, who was given a three-year jail sentence on Monday, and to reopen the satellite channel’s office in the capital Baghdad. On July 31, security forces raided the Iraqi-owned station and Al-Dhabhawi’s home, a…

Paris, July 31, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iranian authorities to explain the grounds on which they have summoned and arrested 98 “so-called citizen-journalists” for having contact with a London-based Persian-language television channel. “Iranian authorities must immediately clarify the legal basis for this mass detention of its citizens and cease treating those who…

Sulaymaniyah, July 30, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists demands accountability in the killing of Suwayda 24 photojournalist Sari Majid Al-Shoufi, who went missing in the early hours of July 14, 2025, while covering armed clashes in the countryside near the southern Syrian city of Sweida. His death was confirmed on July 24 after several days of search efforts. “Sari…