Detained

Beirut, November 1, 2023—Iraqi Kurdish authorities should immediately reveal the whereabouts of Syrian journalist Sleman Mohammed Ahmed, unconditionally release him, and stop harassing journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. On October 25, Ahmed—an Arabic editor for the local news website RojNews—was arrested by Iraqi Kurdish authorities at the northern Faysh Khabur border and…

Abuja, October 23, 2023—Authorities in Nigeria should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Saint Mienpamo Onitsha, swiftly drop all charges against him, and stop criminalizing the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday. On October 10, police officers arrested Onitsha, founder of the privately owned online broadcaster NAIJA Live TV, in the home of…

New York, October 23, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Russian court’s decision on Monday to detain U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva until December 5 on charges of failing to register herself as a foreign agent. In a closed-door hearing on Monday, a court in the western Russian city of Kazan ordered Kurmasheva, an editor…

Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, journalists and news outlets across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging.   In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while…

Nairobi, Kenya, October 16, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes an October 11 court decision to dismiss the criminal case against Somali journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul and calls on authorities to desist from arbitrarily detaining journalists. “Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul endured nearly two months of detention and faced punitive legal proceedings simply because he…

As of April 28, 2026, CPJ’s preliminary investigations show that at least 262 journalists and media workers are among the more than tens of thousands killed across Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Israel, and Iran since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, 2023 and the Iran war began in February 28, 2026. Israel’s disregard for the…

The smears began the day Christian Ulate began representing jailed Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora: tweets accusing the lawyer of being a leftist or questioning his legal credentials. He began to fear he was being surveilled.  Ulate had taken over the case in August 2022 from two other lawyers, Romeo Montoya García and Mario Castañeda,…

On October 5, 2023, Moroccan police arrested journalist Abdelmjid Amyay, director of local independent news website Chams Post, at a coffee shop in the northeastern city of Oujda and detained him for one night for sharing articles about corruption in the city on his personal Facebook page, according to news reports. The following day, authorities…

New York, October 9, 2023—Taliban authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalists Sultan Ali Jawadi, Saifullah Rezaei, and Mojtaba Qasemi and cease harassing the press in Afghanistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Saturday, three Taliban intelligence operatives took the independent Radio Nasim’s director, Jawadi, and two of its journalists, Rezaei and Qasemi,…

New York, October 6, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Angolan authorities to immediately release journalist Carlos Alberto, who was taken into custody on September 29 to serve a three-year prison sentence for criminal defamation, injurious denunciation, and violating press freedom.  A team of 15 Criminal Investigation Service officers arrested Alberto, editor of the…