West Asia - North Africa

To mark World Press Freedom Day, Moroccan journalist Mustafa Hormatallah began a three-day hunger strike on Friday to protest his imprisonment in Casablanca, while journalists led by the National Syndicate of the Moroccan Press planned to stage a sit-in on Saturday. Hormatallah, a journalist with the independent weekly Al-Watan Al An, was sentenced in August 2007 to eight months in jail, and his...

The Israeli military said Wednesday that initial findings from its investigation into the killing of a Reuters news agency cameraman indicated that troops did not realize they were firing at a journalist, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Palestinian cameraman Fadel Shana, 23, was killed April 16 by tank fire while covering fighting between Israeli troops and Gaza militants. His colleague...

Assailants on Friday gunned down an Iraqi journalist who had been working for a local radio station run by a Shiite political party that is the chief rival of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the station and police said, according to the Associated Press (AP). Jassim al-Batat, 38, was killed by gunmen in a speeding car as he left his house in the town of Qurna in his own car, said Adnan al...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has delpored deplores the Tunisian government’s apparent censorship of the opposition weekly Al-Mawkif. Over the past month, Tunisian authorities have prevented distribution of four successive issues of Al-Mawkif, published since 1984 by the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP). Rachid Khechana, editor of Al-Mawkif, told CPJ that plainclothes...

Radio Netherlands Worldwide journalist Abir Sarras was arrested at Tel Aviv airport on Sunday night. She was told that she would not be permitted to enter Israel and that she would be put on a plane back to the Netherlands, the radio station reported. Palestinian-born Sarras, who holds a Dutch passport, had been planning to produce a series of reports about Israel's 60 year existence. Sarras used...

A Reuters cameraman was killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in what appeared to be an Israeli military strike, the news agency reported. Fadel Shana, a 23-year-old Palestinian, was covering violence in the enclave. Two bystanders were also killed in an explosion after Shana stepped from his vehicle, apparently to film Israeli forces positioned several hundred meters (yards) away. His soundman...

The US military released Associated Press (AP) photographer Bilal Hussein on Wednesday after holding him for more than two years without filing formal charges. Hussein, 36, was handed over to AP colleagues at a checkpoint in Baghdad. He was taken to the site aboard a prisoner bus and left US custody wearing a traditional Iraqi robe. He was smiling and appeared in good health. "I want to thank all...

An award-winning Iranian journalist was due to return to prison on Tuesday after being allowed three months' leave because of illness, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting his lawyer. The return to jail of Emadeddin Baghi, who heads a prisoners' rights group and has openly campaigned against the death penalty in Iran, came just a week after he was awarded a major journalism prize in...

Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein began his third year in US military detention Saturday with the bulk of accusations against him dropped by Iraqi judges and press freedom groups renewing calls for his release. But the Pentagon said Hussein will be held until it reviews the Iraqi amnesty ruling and also said it reserves the option to ignore the decision and keep Hussein in custody. A...

An American freelance journalist detained over his coverage of recent riots said Friday last he had been released, while authorities announced at least nine Egyptian journalists were being held, according to an Associated Press (AP) report. James Buck and his Egyptian translator were among several taken into custody in Mahalla el-Kobra, a northern industrial city where protests over high prices...