Syria / Middle East & North Africa

New York, June 6, 2019 — Kurdish security forces in the northern Syrian city of al-Hasakah should immediately release journalist Mohammad Tawfiq al-Saghir, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Beirut, May 29, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Syrian authorities to respect the civilian status of journalists covering airstrikes and clashes in the northwestern part of the country.

In a Q&A with CPJ, British war photographer Paul Conroy discusses his last assignment with Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin in Syria, in 2012, and the dangers for photojournalists, especially when covering conflict.

On International Women’s Day, CPJ has highlighted the cases of female journalists jailed around the world in retaliation for their work. At least 33 of the 251 journalists in jail at the time of CPJ’s prison census are women. At least one of those–Turkish reporter and artist Zehra Dogan–was released in February after serving a…

Gabriele Micalizzi, an Italian freelance photojournalist, was severely injured by shrapnel while covering clashes between the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and the Islamic State militant group in the eastern Syrian village of Baghuz on February 11, 2019, according to news reports, the pro-opposition Rojava Information Center, and CNN photographer and filmmaker Gabriel Chaim, who was…

Ahmed al-Khatib, a reporter for the pro-opposition Edlib Media Center, was injured by shrapnel in Idlib province while covering a town’s shelling by the Syrian army on February 9, 2019, according to his employer, news reports, the local press freedom group Syrian Journalists’ Association, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ.

New York, January 31, 2019–A U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., late yesterday found the Syrian government culpable in the 2012 killing of Marie Colvin, a correspondent for the U.K. newspaper Sunday Times, and ordered the government to pay US$302.5 million to her family, AFP reported today. According to the opinion, the court found that…

Beirut, December 11, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed grave concern about the fate of Syrian journalist Amjed al-Maleh. According to news reports, Syrian militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham threatened to execute al-Maleh, a Syrian freelance journalist and media activist from the southwestern Syrian city of Madaya whom the group had been holding captive…

Beirut, November 26, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the assassination of prominent radio host Raed Fares and photographer Hamoud al-Jnaid and urged local authorities in the northwestern Syrian city of Kafranbel to investigate the murder and bring those responsible to justice.

Joudy Boulos has a million stories she wants to write. But as a Syrian freelance journalist living in Damascus, her ability to report is severely limited by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It is so dangerous that “Joudy Boulos” is a pseudonym the journalist sometimes uses when reporting and to protect her safety.…