Middle East & North Africa

The e-mails started on July 15, 2009, and have continued ever since—pleas for help from Iranian journalists who fled their country often with little money and scarce provisions to northern Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, India, and a host of other locales around the world. Many lived in hiding throughout Iran for weeks or months before crossing perilous borders when it soon became apparent that their homes and country were no longer safe havens for their return.

An exodus from Iran, East Africa

At least 85 journalists fled their home countries in the past year in the face of attacks, threats, and possible imprisonment. High exile rates are seen in Iran and in the East African nations of Somalia and Ethiopia. A CPJ Special Report by María Salazar-Ferro

On Friday evening, after receiving an unexpected royal pardon, Driss Chahtan, the editor of the independent weekly Al-Michaal, was released from Oukacha Prison in Casablanca. However, his release is one of the few positive developments amid many alarming cases of worsening press conditions in Morocco.

New York, June 15, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Moroccan judiciary today to overturn a prison sentence given Friday to Taoufik Bouachrine, editor of the independent daily Akhbar al-Youm, on politicized criminal charges.

Each year, UNESCO honors a courageous international journalist with the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, named in honor of the Colombian editor murdered in 1986 by the Medellín Cartel. The prize is chosen by an independent jury and over the years I've attended several moving ceremonies in which some of the most daring journalists of our generation have been honored. 

New York, June 9, 2010--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Istanbul's Yargıtay High Court to overturn on appeal a 15-month prison sentence given to Turkish journalist Irfan Aktan on Friday. Aktan was found guilty of "producing terrorist propaganda" in an article published in an issue of the biweekly Express in October 2009.

New York, June 9, 2010—At least 37 journalists were behind bars in Iran as of June 1, with an additional 19 detainees free on short-term furloughs, according to CPJ’s monthly census of journalists jailed in Iran. Imprisonment figures have remained high in Iran since the government began its crackdown on critical journalism and dissent in the aftermath of the disputed June 2009 presidential election, CPJ research shows.

On the one-year anniversary of Iran’s disputed June 12 presidential election, it is a good opportunity for those of us who enjoy certain freedoms to speak out for journalists in Iran who are struggling to make their own voices heard.

The European Court of Human Rights issued a historic sentence on June 1, when it ruled that Spain’s sentencing in a case between the now-deceased Moroccan king Hassan II and me, formerly the editor of the Madrid-based newspaper Diario 16, violated the rights of freedom of expression and of the press.