West Asia - North Africa

An assassination attempt was made Sunday against Muaid al-Lami, head of the Iraqi Journalists’ Syndicate, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Four unidentified gunmen in a car intercepted and opened fire in Baghdad’s Al-Qadisiyya district on a two-car convoy carrying al-Lami and four other individuals, according to news reports. Al-Lami told New York-based CPJ that he was not...

Sudan’s official press regulator, the National Press Council, is investigating two editors accused of insulting President Omar al-Bashir, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Yass Omar al-Imam, editor-in-chief of the pro-opposition daily Rai al-Shaab, and Fayez al-Silaik, acting editor-in-chief of the independent daily Ajras al-Hurriya, were questioned Monday by officials with...

An Israeli journalist on assignment in Egypt has been arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Yotam Feldman was arrested Sunday near the Egyptian-Israeli border while reporting on African immigrants illegally crossing into Israel, according to news accounts. Israeli TV Channel 10 said in a statement that Feldman was on assignment for the station and was working on a...

The Jordanian State Security Court last week banned news media from covering corruption allegations involving the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company and several leading national figures, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Yousef Faouri, attorney-general at the State Security Court, issued an order on March 9 banning the press from reporting or commenting on the case without his...

Yemeni authorities have seized equipment that enable the pan-Arab satellite news channels Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera to broadcast live from the country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Security forces raided the Sana’a offices of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya on Thursday, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. The move came after both channels had broadcast clashes...

Palestinian journalist Mustafa Sabri’s home in Qaliqilya, in the north of the West Bank, was raided by members of the security forces as he was about to give an interview on March 9, just hours after he was released from prison on payment of 5,000 Jordanian dinars (5,160 euros) in bail, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The newspaper Filastine’s former bureau chief, Sabri had been...

Political rivalry and tension prompted by the March 7 legislative elections in Iraqi Kurdistan resulted in a wave of violence against independent and opposition journalists in the days preceding the election and on election day itself. Journalists describe it as the most harrowing period since the US invasion of Iraq in April 2003. “I am really concerned about these press freedom violations, which...

A Kuwaiti court has fined a journalist and two newspapers for statements deemed offensive to the ruling family and the prime minister, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Sunday, a criminal court in Kuwait fined opposition writer and journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem 3,000 Kuwaiti dinars (US$10,500) for publishing an article in November critical of Prime Minister...

Although a number of journalists and netizens have been freed in in Iran during the past few days, the crackdown on media and journalists is continuing. The daily Etemad was suspended on March 1 and the weekly Iran Dokht’s licence has been cancelled. At the same time, journalists continue to be arrested in Tehran and many others throughout the country have received summonses, according to...

“You have guns, we have pens,” was the message that the Sulaymaniyah-based independent newspaper Hawlati (Citizen) printed on an otherwise blank front page on February 24 in a bold protest against a spate of threats, harassment and physical violence against journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan in the run-up to a parliamentary election on March 6. Hawlati’s front page is just one example of the growing...