New York, February 16, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the continued assaults on journalists covering anti-government demonstrations in the Middle East. In recent days, journalists have been obstructed, assaulted, or detained in Libya, Bahrain, Iran, and Yemen. Authorities have also slowed down Internet connection and blocked websites, according to local journalists.
New York, February 16, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the continued assaults on journalists covering anti-government demonstrations in the Middle East. In recent days, journalists have been obstructed, assaulted, or detained in Libya, Bahrain, Iran, and Yemen. Authorities have also slowed down Internet connection and blocked websites, according to local journalists.
“It’s alarming to see Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Iran, take a page from Egypt and Tunisia to use violence and censorship to stop coverage of political unrest,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “The international community must speak out against these deliberate acts of media obstruction.”
Unrest in the region has been growing since late December when Tunisians began a revolt against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year rule and since the collapse of the Mubarak regime in Egypt in February.
In Bahrain, the government has selectively reduced the speed of Internet connections inside the country for the past two days, journalists and activists in the country told CPJ. Currently, the Internet is being slowed down selectively in newspaper offices, hotels, and homes but not in governmental institutions, local journalists told CPJ. Also, a number of accounts on the video-sharing website Bambuser were blocked according to CPJ’s sources. On Tuesday, Hassan Jamali, a photojournalist working for The Associated Press was summoned for questioning by the Interior Ministry after taking pictures of people injured in anti-government demonstrations, a colleague speaking on condition of anonymity told CPJ. Authorities ordered him to not take additional pictures of the injured.
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