Syria / Middle East & North Africa

  
A Fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces stands guard in the front line village of Baghouz on February 2, 2019. An Italian photojournalist was recently injured by Islamic State rebels while covering the conflict in Baghuz. (Delil Souleiman/AFP)

Italian photojournalist severely injured covering clashes in eastern Syria

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…

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A Syrian opposition fighter stands at a checkpoint in Idlib province on October 13, 2018. A journalist was recently injured in Idlib while covering a government shelling campaign there. (Ugur Can/DHA via AP)

Syrian journalist injured in shelling in Idlib province

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.

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A man holds a sign honoring Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin after a memorial service in London in 2012. A U.S. court ruled on January 30, 2019, that the Syrian government deliberately killed her. (Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)

US court: Syria ‘planned, executed extrajudicial killing’ of Marie Colvin

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…

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A Syrian militant group is threatening to execute journalist and media activist Amjed al-Maleh. (Zaman al-Wasl)

Militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham threatens to execute Syrian journalist Amjed al-Maleh

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…

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Journalists Hamoud al-Jneid (left) and Raed Fares, who were gunned down by unknown assailants in the city of Kafranbel in northwestern Syria on November 23, 2018. (Radio Fresh)

Unknown gunmen kill prominent Syrian radio host and a photographer in northwestern Syria

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.

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A man walks through rubble in Damascus in October 2018, caused by years of war. Safety remains a key concern for Syrian journalists. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

Damascus journalist has a million stories but none she can safely report

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.…

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Two journalists shot, injured covering effects of Turkish shelling in Syria

Two reporters for the Hawar News Agency (ANHA), Gulistan Mohammad and Ibrahim al-Ahmed, were injured by Turkish gunfire while covering the effects of Turkey’s shelling of the northern Syrian city of Tell Abbyad on the Turkey-Syria border on November 2, 2018, according to news reports, the journalists’ employer, footage provided by Brazilian photojournalist and filmmaker…

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A tribute to victims of an April 2018 suicide attack in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, that killed at least nine journalists. (AP/Rahmat Gul)

Getting Away with Murder

CPJ’s 2018 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and their killers go free By Elisabeth Witchel, CPJ Impunity Campaign Consultant Impunity is entrenched in 14 nations, according to CPJ’s 2018 Global Impunity Index, which ranks states with the worst records of prosecuting the killers of journalists.

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Shoppers walk on a market street in the northeastern Syrian town of Qamishli on May 2, 2018. A prominent Syrian writer was arrested and held for five days in the town in late September and early October 2018. (AFP/Delil Souleiman)

Prominent Syrian writer Yousph arrested in northeastern Syria, held for five days

Syrian writer Souleman Yousph, a contributor to several media outlets, including the Assyrian news website Ankawa, the independent Arabic news website Elaph, and the political and cultural online secular magazine Ahewar, was arrested and detained without charge on September 30, 2018, and held for five days. An eyewitness to the arrest who asked to remain…

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Tents are shown at a refugee camp for internally displaced Syrians in Idlib province on July 30, 2018. Syrian authorities arrested a news anchor for Iraqi Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw, who had recently discussed on air fears of a large-scale military offensive on the province. (Reuters/Khalil Ashawi)

Syrian military intelligence arrests Syrian Kurdish journalist at checkpoint

Beirut, September 5, 2018 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Syrian authorities to immediately release Omar Kalo, a news anchor for the Iraqi Kurdish satellite news broadcaster Rudaw.

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