Iranian journalist detained over coronavirus coverage
On April 2, 2020, security agents in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah arrested and detained Kurdish Iranian journalist Gholamreza Noori Ala for several hours and then released him, according to a report posted to Telegram by the Tehran Journalists Association, a local trade group, and an employee of the association, who spoke to CPJ…
Iraqi security forces beat journalist Mohamed Kader al-Samarrai at COVID-19 checkpoint
On March 31, 2020, two officers of the Iraqi Police Sixth Emergency Regiment assaulted Mohamed Kader al-Samarrai, director of the local broadcaster Al-Maliyah TV, after stopping him at a checkpoint to enforce the country’s COVID-19 curfew, according to a Facebook post by al-Samarrai and reports by the National Union of Journalists in Iraq and the…
Three newspaper staffers charged with ‘attack on national unity’ over COVID-19 report in Algeria
On April 1, 2020, officers of Algeria’s National Gendarmerie arrested three employees of the privately owned Essawt El-Akhar daily newspaper and interrogated them about a story the paper published that day about the COVID-19 pandemic, according to news reports and Abdelrahman Saleh, the employees’ lawyer, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.
Iraqi regulator suspends Reuters’ license for 3 months over COVID-19 report
New York, April 3, 2020 — Iraqi authorities should immediately reinstate the license of the Reuters news agency, and allow all media outlets to cover the COVID-19 pandemic freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Unidentified attackers shoot at office of Lebanese journalist Shuaib Zakaria
In the evening of March 29, 2020, unidentified assailants fired dozens of bullets at the house and office of Shuaib Zakaria, a reporter for local broadcaster Radio Delta North and the news website Madinati, in the village of Fnaidek, in the northern Lebanese governorate of Akkar, according Zakaria, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app,…
Iran bans printing of all newspapers, citing spread of coronavirus
Washington, D.C., March 31, 2020 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern over Iranian authorities’ decision to suspend all newspaper printing and distribution in the country, where newsgathering and distribution is already tightly restricted.