Security forces in northern Syria detain 2 journalists
Washington, D.C., February 10, 2022 – Kurdish security forces in northern Syria should immediately release journalists Sabri Fakhri and Bawar Malla Ahmad, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On Saturday, February 5, soldiers affiliated with the Democratic Party Union, the political party in power in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’s regional…
Two Kurdish Iranian journalists sentenced to 2.5 years in jail, 90 lashes
Washington, D.C., August 10, 2021 – Iranian authorities should not subject journalists Sharam Amjadian and Morteza Haq-Bayan to imprisonment or lashes, and should stop prosecuting members of the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 3, Branch 104 of the Sanandaj Penal Court, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan,…
A devastating loss for press freedom in Hong Kong
In recognition of his sustained commitment to press freedom, CPJ will honor Jimmy Lai, the imprisoned founder of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaperand the paper’s parent company, Next Digital, with the 2021 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award. However, in deeply troubling developments, the Chinese government has ramped up its efforts to stomp out critical…
Anisa Jafari-Mehr
Iranian-Kurdish writer Anisa Jafari-Mehr was arrested on November 23, 2020 and is being held in an undisclosed location. No charges have been made public in her case. Jafari-Mehr is literary and arts critic at J, a Germany-based Kurdish-language magazine, according to reports by the exile-run outlets Human Rights Activists News Agency and IranWire. On November…
Turkey to try 2 journalists for alleged membership in terrorist groups
Istanbul, August 31, 2020 – Turkish authorities should drop all charges against journalists Rawin Sterk and Selman Keleş, release Sterk from prison, and cease filing bogus terrorism charges against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 2, the 34th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes, in Çağlayan, is scheduled to begin proceedings…
CPJ appeals ruling to find out whether US government failed to warn Khashoggi
In a brief submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, CPJ argued that the U.S. intelligence community should confirm or deny the existence of documents that may provide information on its awareness of threats to the life of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Watch yesterday’s Q&A with CPJ’s Washington Advocacy…
Zuber Bradosti
Zuber Bradosti, a Kurdish Iraqi reporter, has been detained since July 2019 over accusations that he contravened Peshmerga Ministry regulations by working as a journalist and a soldier. A local press freedom group says that Bradosti is being singled out because his outlet is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the ruling Kurdistan…
Mohammed Ismael Rasool
Rasool, a Turkey-based Iraqi journalist, was working as a fixer with VICE News journalists Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, who are both British, in southeastern Turkey when they were arrested in the province of Diyarbakır on August 27, 2015, according to reports. The three journalists, who were detained along with their Turkish driver, had been…
Tuba Akyılmaz (Nujiyan Erhan)
Kurdish Turkish journalist Tuba Akyılmaz, also known as Nujiyan Erhan, died on March 23, 2017, from injuries sustained 20 days earlier in an area between Sinune and Khanasoor in the northwestern Iraqi region of Shingal, according to news reports and the local human rights group 17 Shubat for Human Rights. Akyılmaz was a reporter for…
Kamaran Najm
Militants from the extremist group Islamic State captured freelance photojournalist Kamaran Najm on June 12, 2014, while he was covering clashes between the militants and the Kurdish Peshmarga in Mullah Abdullah, a village near Kirkuk, according to the journalist’s family and a colleague. Najm founded Metrography, an Iraqi photo agency, with U.S. journalist Sebastian Meyer…