Middle East & North Africa documents by Year:
Lebanese minister prevents three journalists from attending news conference
June 30, 2017 12:28 PM ET
Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Jamal al-Jarrah prevented Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) reporter Bassam Abou Zeid, LBCI cameraman Zaki Fagali, and Al-Jadeed TV cameraman Mohammad al-Samra from covering a June 22, 2017, news conference in Beirut, according to news reports and the Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom....
Journalist assaulted covering protest in Beirut
June 29, 2017 6:06 PM ET
A security officer in civilian clothes and a uniformed soldier on June 16, 2017, struck French freelance journalist Philippine de Clermont Tonnere as she covered a protest in Beirut against a third extension of the Lebanese parliament's term, the journalist told the Committee to Protect Journalists....
CPJ calls for release of Zagros TV journalist detained in Syria
June 29, 2017 1:07 PM ET
The Committee to Protect Journalists writes to the co-chairs of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria and authorities governing the Cizire Canton in Syria, to request the release of Zagros TV journalist Barzan Hussein Liani, whom security forces detained in May.
Calls to shutter Qatari media show contempt for press freedom
June 28, 2017 3:10 PM ET
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt to drop demands that Qatari-funded media be closed as a condition for the lifting of the partial blockade they have imposed on Qatar.
Gulf countries order Qatar to close Al-Jazeera and other outlets
June 23, 2017 2:10 PM ET
New York, June 23, 2017--A group of Arab countries today issued Qatar a list of demands, including that the Gulf nation close media outlets that it funds, among them the broadcasters Al-Jazeera and Arabi 21, and the websites Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye. The demands are a prerequisite...
Palestinian Authority censors at least 11 news websites
June 21, 2017 1:02 PM ET
New York, June 21, 2017--The Palestinian Authority should cease blocking access to news websites in the West Bank, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Palestinian Authority's attorney general, Ahmad Barrak, on June 15 ordered internet service providers to block access to at least 11 news websites, according...
Sudan confiscates copies of daily newspaper Akhir Lahza
June 20, 2017 6:06 PM ET
On June 17, 2017, Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services summoned Akhir Lahza's editor-in-chief Saleh Abdelazim to its offices in Khartoum and told him that copies of the daily Arabic-language newspaper would be confiscated indefinitely, according to the newspaper's managing editor Luay Abdelrahman and news reports....
Iraqi fixer and French journalist killed in Mosul
June 20, 2017 5:54 PM ET
Beirut, June 20, 2017--French cameraman Stephan Villeneuve and Iraqi fixer Bakhtiyar Haddad were killed in an explosion that also injured French journalists Veronique Robert and Samuel Forey as they covered Iraqi soldiers' efforts to retake control of the old city of Mosul yesterday, according to news reports and the...
Editor of Moroccan news website harassed
June 20, 2017 10:50 AM ET
New York, June 20, 2017--Moroccan authorities should cease harassing Hamid al-Mahdaoui, the editor of the news website Badil, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Moroccan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit has filed a criminal defamation complaint against al-Mahdaoui, and the editor says he was questioned for six hours last...
Court begins hearing colonel's defamation suit against TV journalists
June 16, 2017 6:12 PM ET
Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) Col. Nizar Bou Nasreddine on July 9, 2016, filed a lawsuit against Youmna Fawaz, a journalist for the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Tahseen Khayat, Al-Jadeed's owner, and Al-Jadeed editor Mariam Bassam over the station's broadcast in June and July 2016 of a report alleging corruption...