Sudanese authorities have pressed criminal charges against prominent journalist and opposition party member Al-Haj Ali Warrag, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The National Press Council's lead attorney charged Warrag on Sunday under the Sudanese Penal Code with “waging war against the state,” in connection with an article published on April 6 in the independent daily Ajras...
Iraqi journalist Omar Ibrahim Al-Jabouri, the satellite TV station Al-Rasheed’s head of public relations, lost both of his legs Tuesday as a result of a targetted car-bombing in Baghdad, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). A total of three people were seriously injured when the bomb, attached to the underside of Al-Jabouri’s car, exploded as he set off this morning for work with two...
Uniform and plainclothes Egyptian security forces assaulted and obstructed journalists trying to cover protests in Cairo on Tuesday, according to news accounts and interviews by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Several journalists reported that police prevented them from covering clashes between security forces and protesters calling for constitutional reforms and the end of the state...
Thirty-five journalists were imprisoned in Iran as of April 1 as authorities continued their nearly year-long crackdown on the news media, according to CPJ’s latest monthly census. Another 18 journalists were free on short-term furloughs granted for the Iranian New Year and were expected to report back to prison. Many of the incarcerated journalists are under immense physical and psychological...
A court has banned Israeli media coverage of the case of Anat Kam, an online journalist and former soldier accused of leaking classified military information, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). An appeal by Channel 10 and the daily Haaretz against the gag order is due to be heard by a Tel Aviv court on April 12. Kam’s arrest has been widely reported internationally. A contributor to the...
Disturbing video footage showing a 2007 US military airstrike that killed about a dozen Iraqis in eastern Baghdad, including a Reuters cameraman and assistant, was released Tuesday by WikiLeaks, a website that publishes sensitive leaked documents. The video raises questions about the actions of US military forces and the thoroughness and transparency of the investigation that followed, the...
A Kuwait City court sentenced journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem on Thursday to six months in prison on charges of slandering Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The charges were based on remarks Al-Jassem gave at a February human rights conference in which he said the prime minister was unfit to rule the country and...
Several Iranian journalists continue to be held in inhumane conditions at the notorious Evin Prison. At least one journalist is reported in deteriorating health, and two are under severe duress to “confess” to charges that could bring execution, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The daughters of Badressadat Mofidi, the prominent Iranian journalist and secretary of the banned...
There were a number of press freedom violations in March by the Israel Defence Forces, which routinely fire on Palestinian journalists, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Eight journalists were injured by shots fired by Israeli soldiers during March in the West Bank and Jerusalem. “The incidents continue with complete impunity,” Paris-based RSF said. “The IDF soldiers involved are...
Tunisian authorities banned journalists from attending two press conferences for the launch of local and international human rights reports this week, and is stepping up harassment of journalists overall, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. On Wednesday, police ordered journalists not to attend a press conference at a law office in Tunis where Human Rights Watch was planning to...
