CPJ calls on Houthis to reverse death sentence against Yemeni journalists, release them from custody
New York, April 11, 2020 – The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm at a decision by the Ansar Allah group, known as the Houthis, to sentence Abdulkhaleq Amran, Akram al-Waleedi, Hareth Hameed, and Tawfiq al-Mansouri to death, and urged the Houthis to release them and all other journalists in their custody.
Bahrain puts imprisoned journalist in solitary confinement after reporting on COVID-19 danger
New York, April 10, 2020 – Bahraini authorities should immediately stop retaliating against imprisoned journalist Mahmoud al-Jaziri for reporting on conditions inside Bahraini prisons and should free all journalists imprisoned for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Jordan arrests 2 Roya TV journalists over COVID-19 coverage
New York, April 10, 2020 — In response to Jordanian authorities’ arrest of Fares Sayegh, general manager of the privately owned satellite station Roya TV, and Mohammad Alkhalidi, the channel’s news director, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:
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.