Middle East & North Africa

On May 15, 2020, Palestinian police officers manning a checkpoint in the West Bank town of Anabta pulled over, assaulted, and arrested Anas Hawari, a reporter for the Hamas-affiliated Quds News Network, according to a report by his employer, a Facebook post by his lawyer, Mohannad Karajeh, and a report by the Skeyes Center for…

Washington, D.C., May 20, 2020 — Iranian authorities should immediately release journalist Nejat Bahrami from prison and cease arbitrarily jailing members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Three additional local news websites have been blocked on Algerian networks since April 22, 2020, bringing the number of outlets affected in April and May to at least six, according to online statements by the websites affected. The intervention came in the wake of a new law against “false news.”

New York, May 19, 2020 — Iraq authorities should conduct a transparent and speedy investigation into the ransacking of the Baghdad office of the Saudi broadcaster MBC and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, May 18, 2020 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the detention of at least eight Kurdish Iraqi journalists covering a protest in Duhok on May 16 and called on the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan to drop all charges pending against four of them.

On May 10, Saman Barzinji, the health minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government, announced that the COVID-19 pandemic no longer posed a threat to the region, and that the area would gradually reopen, according to news reports.

New York, May 17, 2020— Egyptian authorities must immediately release Mada Masr editor-in-chief Lina Attalah, who was arrested outside the prison where her colleague Alaa Abdelfattah is on hunger strike protesting his detention, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, May 14, 2019 — Egyptian authorities should immediately release journalist Haisam Hasan Mahgoub and let him report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Washington, D.C., May 13, 2020 — Iranian authorities should release journalist Hassan Fathi from prison and cease arbitrarily jailing members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, May 11, 2020 — Authorities in northeastern Syria should reverse their suspension of reporter Vivian Fatah’s press credentials and allow all journalists to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.