Saudi Arabia / Middle East & North Africa

New York, February 6, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the 12-year jail term handed to the owner of a broadcaster in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The journalist has 30 days to appeal.

New York, October 31, 2013–Saudi authorities should immediately release a columnist who wrote in support of the women’s right to drive and has been held without charge since Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

News accounts reported that Jalal Mohamed al-Jamal, manager of the local news website Al-Awamia, was freed from prison on March 5, 2013. It was unclear why the journalist, who was jailed without charge for more than a year, had been released.

The Kingdom continued severe censorship of any critical reporting, taking special measures to obstruct coverage of protests in Eastern Province calling for political reform and greater rights for the country’s Shia minority. Foreign and local journalists were forbidden to enter the province, where demonstrations had begun in February 2011. Imprisonments ticked up during the year.…

Worldwide tally reaches highest point since CPJ began surveys in 1990. Governments use charges of terrorism, other anti-state offenses to silence critical voices. Turkey is the world’s worst jailer. A CPJ special report

Editors think twice, reporters do not dig deeply, columnists choose words carefully. By Jean-Paul Marthoz

See updated list of 10 Most Censored Countries here: https://cpj.org/reports/2019/09/10-most-censored-eritrea-north-korea-turkmenistan-journalist.php. CPJ’s new analysis identifies Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Iran as worst

CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney counts down the 10 countries where the press is most tightly restricted. How do leaders in these nations silence the media? And which country is the worst of all? (4:03) Read CPJ’s report on the 10 Most Censored countries for more detail on how censorship works, and which countries were…