Around midnight on March 18, about two dozen individuals, identifying themselves as police, forcibly entered and searched Noorani’s family home in Islamabad. They assaulted the journalist’s two brothers, Mohammad Saif ur Rehman Haider and Mohammad Ali, dragged them into vehicles, and took them to an undisclosed location, according to Noorani, his mother, and a copy of a petition about the abductions  filed by the family’s lawyers with the Islamabad High Court, which CPJ reviewed. Noorani and the petition identify the abductors as agents of Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence.

Khehtran disappeared on March 13 from his home district of Barkhan in Balochistan province, and there has been no information about his whereabouts, according to independent news outlet ANI news and human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari, who is following the case and spoke to CPJ.

“It is deeply concerning that journalist Asif Karim Khehtran, as well as Mohammad Saif ur Rehman Haider and Mohammad Ali, brothers of journalist Ahmed Noorani, have been forcibly disappeared. This is indicative of a severe media crackdown in Pakistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must ensure their safety, immediately release them, and respect the rule of law.”

On March 17, Noorani published an investigative report detailing the alleged control that Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, has consolidated since assuming the country’s top military position in 2022. Both Noorani and the petition filed on behalf of his family in the Islamabad High Court claim that this report led to the enforced disappearance of his brothers.

In 2024, Khehtran had faced persistent threats from military authorities, who pressured him to halt his reporting on human rights issues in Balochistan. His family members had previously been forcibly disappeared, as well, according to Mazari.

Noorani is a journalist with the investigative news website FactFocus, which extensively publishes on Pakistan, and Khehtran has worked with Daily Awami and Quetta Voice.

Abductions and forced disappearances of journalists in Pakistan have been widely documented, including the high-profile cases of Imran Riaz Khan and Sami Ibrahim, who were abducted in May 2023 and later released.

CPJ’s messages for comment to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar have received no response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Within hours of the alleged attacker’s image being released, social media was rife with speculation. Before the police’s official statement on January 19 regarding an arrest, anyone who was called in for questioning by the police or bearing resemblance to viral image of the CCTV footage was labelled as accused.

On January 17, news agency IANS (@ians_india) posted on X (formerly Twitter) that someone named Waris Ali was detained in connection with Saif Ali Khan’s stabbing case. Sharing a video of Waris Ali’s wife, IANS said that he was detained and under interrogation by the Bandra police for 24 hours.

Mumbai: Police have detained a man named Waris Ali, who has been questioned for the past 24 hours in connection with the actor Saif Ali Khan case. Waris Ali was detained by the Bandra police in Mumbai yesterday and is currently being interrogated

Waris Ali’s wife says, “His… pic.twitter.com/M5AWkNImlh

— IANS (@ians_india) January 17, 2025

Shortly after, X user Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) shared the IANS video insinuating that discussion regarding Khan’s case would stop since the accused is Muslim.

Big news : Mumbai Police have detained a man named Waris Ali in connection with Saif Ali Khan case. He’s being interrogated by Police…

Now all the moron seculars will start discussing weather.pic.twitter.com/yeCUHYzyQp

— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) January 17, 2025

On the same day, news agency ANI also shared a clip where a man in a white shirt, with a similar build as the man appearing in the CCTV footage, is seen at the Bandra police station. The agency’s caption suggests that these were “latest visuals” from the “Saif Ali Khan Attack Case”.

#WATCH | Saif Ali Khan Attack Case | Mumbai Police bring one person to Bandra Police station for questioning.

Latest Visuals pic.twitter.com/us4CYR7BR1

— ANI (@ANI) January 17, 2025

The following day, January 18, IANS shared another clip of a white-shirted man taking shoes from a rack. The person in this appears the same as the man in the ANI video. IANS reported that footage “of a suspect” in the Saif Ali Khan case was found from Versova.

Mumbai, Maharashtra: A CCTV footage of a suspect in the Actor Saif Ali Khan case from January 12 in Versova has been found, but no footage is available from his house pic.twitter.com/aSWSNNO3Sz

— IANS (@ians_india) January 18, 2025

Later on January 18, IANS reported that another suspect, Aakash Kanojia, was arrested in Chhattisgarh by Durg Railway Protection Force and was to be handed over to the Mumbai police. IANS conclusively said “Saif Ali Khan’s attacker, identified as Akash, has been arrested” along with his image and a statement from station in-charge SK Singh in a follow-up post.

Actor Saif Ali Khan’s attacker, identified as Akash, has been arrested by Durg RPF from the Gyaneshwar Express following an alert from Mumbai Police. The accused is currently in RPF custody, awaiting interrogation by Mumbai Police pic.twitter.com/CBlnpZCnZ7

— IANS (@ians_india) January 18, 2025

In a now-deleted post on X, academic Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) implied that the attacker may have had some association with Hindutva groups because the CCTV footage shows him with a saffron scarf.

Meanwhile, others on social media amplified the claims and even suggested that the man in the ANI video was indeed the attacker and his name was Waris Ali.

X accounts @KumaarSaagar, @JaipurDialogues, @KreatelyMedia and @MeghUpdates were some of those that amplified these claims:

Fact Check

As of January 18, the police had made no arrest and most news reports until then neither identify the attacker nor claim that the police nabbed someone in the case. An NDTV report from January 18 said that a man with “facial similarities to the accused was detained” on January 17, however, the cops clarified that the detention was not in connection with Saif Ali Khan’s stabbing case.

Also, on January 17, ANI clarified that the person in the white shirt, whose video the agency had shared a couple of hours ago, was unrelated to the Saif Ali Khan case and no arrests were made in the actor’s case yet.

Saif Ali Khan Attack Case | The person brought to Bandra police station for questioning is not related to the Saif Ali Khan Attack Case. No one is detained in Saif Ali Khan Attack Case of now: Mumbai police https://t.co/1pZBX0rgl2 pic.twitter.com/vG8WnpTauk

— ANI (@ANI) January 17, 2025

We also came across an X post by a Mid-Day journalist who said that the man in the white shirt (as seen in the ANI video) was brought in by the police on charges that he stole shoes. This means the video shared by IANS, showing the man taking shoes from a shoe rack, is unrelated to Khan’s stabbing.

The person brought to the Bandra Police Station for resembling the accused who attacked Saif Ali Khan turned out to be a chappal chor. #SaifAliKhan pic.twitter.com/8CZHlNVbgT

— فیضان خان FaizanKhan (@journofaizan) January 17, 2025

Therefore, users claiming on social media that the man in the white shirt entering Bandra police station was Khan’s attacker is far from true. Also, IANS’s claim from January 17 that Waris Ali was detained is baseless because the police categorically said no arrests were made until then.

Additionally, in the same viral video shared by IANS, Waris Ali’s wife herself clarifies that her husband was only being questioned. Her statement clearly says that her husband has been doing carpentry work at Saif Ali Khan’s residence since January 15 along with five others. She adds that Ali returned home that night after his work and this was even captured on CCTV. After the incident, Ali received a call and was asked to return to Khan’s residence from where he accompanied the police for questioning.

On January 18, IANS posted Mumbai special commissioner’s clarification that Aakash Kanojia, who was detained by the Durg RPF in Chhattisgarh, also had no connection to the Saif Ali Khan case.

Mumbai Special Commissioner has clarified that the accused arrested in Durg (Chhattisgarh) is not the person who attacked actor Saif Ali Khan. A police team is headed to Durg to investigate the suspect, who is involved in other cases but has no connection to actor Saif Ali Khan’s… https://t.co/00tGyiemHh pic.twitter.com/okw6Au4HDI

— IANS (@ians_india) January 18, 2025

On January 19, the Mumbai police held a press conference where Deputy Commissioner of Police Dixit Gedam said that the accused had been arrested on January 18 night and identified as Mohammad Shariful Islam Shahzad. DCP Gedam stated that they believe the accused entered the house with the motive of robbery, he shall be produced in front of a court to request police custody and the investigation will be continued.

Based on the above, it is evident that many, including news agencies, prematurely jumped to conclusions, falsely implicating individuals unrelated to the case. Additionally, claims linking the accused to any Hindutva organisations are also baseless.

Even after the Mumbai police made an arrest in the case, speculation regarding the whether he truly was the attacker continues. Many have claimed that the alleged attacker-robber’s features bore little resemblance to the image released by the police based on CCTV footage.

The post Saif Ali Khan stabbing: Unrelated individuals falsely labelled as accused appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

During the annual Jerusalem Day Flag March, which commemorates the June 5 capture of East Jerusalem by Israeli forces in the 1967 war, Israeli settlers and far right protesters assaulted Palestinian freelance journalist Saif Kwasmi, who contributes to the local news agency Al-Asiman News, and Israeli journalist Nir Hasson, a reporter for the Israeli daily Haaretz, according to the journalists’ employers, and Kwasmi and Hasson, who spoke to CPJ in person and on the phone on June 5 and 6, respectively.

“Israeli security forces stood idly by while protesters harassed and assaulted Palestinian and Israeli journalists who were reporting on the march. Not only did they fail to do their duty, but they blamed Palestinian journalist Saif Kwasmi for protecting himself from aggression,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martìnez de la Serna. “We call on Israeli authorities to investigate these incidents, identify the culprits and hold them to account.”  

Kwasmi told CPJ that he was filming the closure of local shops in Jerusalem’s Old City after Israeli police ordered the businesses to shut down during the march.

“I was wearing my vest marked with the word ‘press’ and the card given to us by the police spokesperson. A group of young Israeli settlers started to harass us and tried to attack (Palestinian journalist) Diala Jweihan. They began to push me and tried to snatch my cell phone. I had to protect myself and tried to push them away from us because there were more than 20 settlers assaulting us,” Kwasmi said.

Kwasmi explained that the Israeli border police officers did nothing to assist them until they realized that an Israeli journalist (Nir Hasson) was also under attack. Only then did they begin to push settlers away. 

“An Israeli police officer started hitting me and took me to a side street to arrest me. I told him that I am a journalist and produced my card. They escorted the journalists outside of the Old City and to a place for journalists,” Kwasmi explained. 

Later that day, two border police officers approached Kwasmi at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate and questioned him for about half an hour about his work and his reason for being there. A police commander and a member of the domestic intelligence service Shin Bet subsequently joined them and accused Kwasmi of incitement, a claim that he denied. Kwasmi told them he is a journalist and holds a card from the Israeli Journalists’ Union, but they told him that in order to work as a journalist he needs permission from the Israeli Government Press Office.    

A witness from CPJ who was at the march saw Israeli radical activist Yedydya Epstein, who is famous for disrupting the work of Al-Jazeera reporters in Israel, on the scene filming the questioning of Kwasmi and urging the police to arrest him.

For his part, Haaretz reporter Nir Hasson told CPJ that, hours before the start of the march, a group of Israeli settlers were marching on Jerusalem’s Old City terrorizing the locals and attacking the journalists systematically to prevent them from covering the attacks on the local residents.

“At some point the settlers attacked Saif and two other journalists in front of Israeli border police officers who just stood there and did nothing at first so I had to step in to stop the attack. I was pushed to the ground and beaten by the settlers. I didn’t sustain any serious injuries,” Hasson said.

Hasson added that the Israeli police didn’t allow journalists to work freely and failed to protect them.

“They gathered all the journalists in a place away from settlers instead of stopping the attackers. They prevented journalists from covering what was happening to the local residents,” he said.  

According to CPJ research, Israeli police officers briefly detained and assaulted Kwasmi in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque in April 2024. 

CPJ had documented numerous assaults on journalists since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On April 24, Palestinian freelance journalist Saif Kwasmi was reporting on activities at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish Passover holiday for the local news agency Al-Asiman News when four Israeli counter-terrorism police officers entered and asked him to leave with them, the journalist told CPJ, said in a video, and the Hamas-affiliated Quds News Network reported.

Kwasmi said that he showed the officers his Israeli press card and they questioned him for about 30 minutes.

“When we were at Bab al-Silsila [gate to the mosque compound], the two counter-terrorism policemen who were escorting me and a border police officer took me aside and started assaulting me. The border police officer slapped me in the back of my neck,” he told CPJ.

Kwasmi said the officers handcuffed him and took him to the nearby Bet Alyaho police station where “they made me face a wall while security officers beat me and called me a Hamas reporter.”

Kwasmi said he was later transferred to a police station at Jerusalem´s Western Wall where he was again questioned, accused of incitement, and forced to unlock his phone to show the officers his video footage, despite repeatedly saying that he was a journalist. He was subsequently transferred to the Merhav David police station.

The police freed the journalist later that day on the condition that he stay away from the mosque for a week and attend a court hearing on May 1, according to his release order, based on Israeli military law, which Al-Qastal News posted on social media.

“Israeli authorities should once and for all understand that journalism is not a crime and allow Palestinian journalists like Saif Kwasmi to do their jobs freely, without the threat of assault or detention,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “We call on Israeli authorities to overturn the decision to ban Kwasmi from Al-Aqsa Mosque for a week and allow him to report on events of public interest at this important religious site.”

The Al-Aqsa mosque compound is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount and revere it as the spot where the biblical Temples stood. It has long been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence. 

In March, Kwasmi reported for the Qatari-funded Al-Jazeera Mubasher on Israel restricting worshippers’ access to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and the arrest of journalist Walid Zayd. In February, he published a story about a lawsuit to evict Palestinian teenager Nafouth Hammad from her Jerusalem home. Hammad was among the Palestinian prisoners freed from jail in exchange for Israeli hostages during a November ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war.

In CPJ’s most recent prison census, conducted on December 1, Israel imprisoned 17 Palestinian journalists, the highest number of documented media arrests in Israel and the Palestinian territories since CPJ began tracking imprisonments in 1992.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld did not reply to CPJ´s request for comment via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the ruling Awami League party returned to power for her fifth term amid an opposition boycott and low voter turnout. The U.S. State Department said the elections were “not free or fair.”

Mujib Mashal, South Asia bureau chief for The New York Times, told CPJ that the newspaper was denied prior approval by the Bangladesh government to report on the polls.

Separately, on Saturday, January 6, the day before the election, the Daily Manab Zamin newspaper’s website was blocked in Bangladesh following its critical reporting on the government, according to Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, the outlet’s editor-in-chief.

Chowdhury said the outlet did not receive a government notice detailing why the website was blocked, and access was restored on Monday, January 8.

At around 1 p.m. on election day, around 15 to 20 men wearing Awami League badges attacked seven journalists– MA Rahim, a correspondent for the broadcaster Ananda TV, Rimon Hossain, a camera operator with Ananda TV; Masud Rana, a correspondent with the online news portal enews71; Sumon Khan, a correspondent with the broadcaster Mohona TV; Elias Bosunia, a correspondent with the broadcaster Bangla TV; Minaj Islam, a correspondent with the newspaper Daily Vorer Chetona; and Hazrat Ali, a correspondent with the newspaper Dainik Dabanol, during their coverage of an assault on independent candidate Ataur Rahman outside a polling station in northern Lalmonirhat district, according to Rahim and Rana.

The men beat several of the journalists with iron rods and bamboo sticks, beat and pushed others, and broke and confiscated multiple pieces of equipment including cameras and microphones—according to those sources and a complaint filed at the Hatibandha Police Station by Rana, which alleged the perpetrators were led by brothers Md. Zahidul Islam and Md. Mostafa, nephews of the incumbent parliamentarian contested by Rahman.

Md. Zahidul Islam told CPJ that he denied involvement in the attack. Islam did not respond to CPJ’s follow-up question about Mostafa’s alleged involvement in the attack.

Saiful Islam, officer-in-charge of the Hatibandha Police Station, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment.

Separately, at around 2:40 p.m., around 25 men surrounded Sirajul Islam Rubel, a correspondent for The Daily Star newspaper, and Arafat Rahaman, a reporter for The Daily Star, as they tried to leave a polling station in the capital Dhaka after covering an alleged ballot stuffing attempt by Awami League supporters, Rubel told CPJ.

The men grabbed the journalists’ phones, deleted their video footage and photos of the incident, and blocked their exit from the center along with Daily Star reporter Dipan Nandy, who subsequently joined Rubel and Rahaman to report from the station. The trio managed to leave with the assistance of police at around 3:05 p.m., Rubel said.

Separately, at around 2:45 p.m., around 20 to 25 men beat Mosharrof Shah, a correspondent for the daily newspaper Prothom Alo, after he photographed and filmed alleged ballot stuffing by Awami League supporters at a polling station in southeast Chittagong city, the journalist told CPJ.

Shah said that while speaking to an electoral officer about the incident, the men approached the journalist, took his notebook where he wrote what he observed, and deleted footage from his mobile phone in the presence of police. The men repeatedly slapped and punched Shah before he managed to flee the scene after around 30 minutes, the journalist told CPJ, adding that he received his phone back around one hour later with the assistance of his journalist colleagues.

Shah identified one of the perpetrators as Nurul Absar, general secretary of a local unit of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League. Absar did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment.

Previously, on September 24, alleged members of the Chhatra League attacked Shah on the University of Chittagong campus.

Separately, at around 4 p.m., a group of 20 to 30 men surrounded and assaulted Saif Bin Ayub, a sub-editor for the Daily Kalbela newspaper, and took his laptop, phone, other personal items while he was photographing alleged ballot stuffing by Awami League supporters inside a polling center in Dhaka, the journalist told CPJ.

The men pushed Bin Ayub against a wall and punched him, kicked him in the abdomen, and scratched him while forcibly removing his press identification card from around his neck. The perpetrators then dragged him out of the building as he requested help from police present at the scene, the journalist said. 

Officers did not intervene and the beating continued outside for around 15 minutes, the journalist said, adding that he received his phone and broken laptop back later that day but not his wallet, wristwatch and other items.

Separately, at around 4:30 p.m., around eight to 10 men—including electoral officials and teenagers wearing Awami League badges—pushed Sam Jahan, a Reuters video journalist, out of a vote counting room in a polling station in Dhaka. Two of the teenagers then chased Jahan out of the station, he told CPJ.

Separately, Awami League supporters surrounded and obstructed the work of four journalists with the New Age newspaper—correspondent Muktadir Rashid, photojournalist Sourav Laskar, and reporters Nasir Uz Zaman and Tanzil Rahaman—during their coverage of polling stations in Dhaka, Rashid told CPJ.

Separately, unidentified perpetrators threw bricks from behind at Mohiuddin Modhu, a news presenter and correspondent for the broadcaster Jamuna Television, after the journalist tried to speak to a young teenager who attempted to cast a ballot in the Nawabganj sub-district of Dhaka district.

Biplab Barua, Awami League office secretary and special aide to Prime Minister Hasina, told CPJ that law enforcement took swift action regarding all attacks on journalists on election day. Barua added that the government is committed to launching investigations into all such incidents and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On Monday, August 29, Iraqi security forces arrested, assaulted, or confiscated equipment from journalists with local and international outlets covering protests in Baghdad, the capital, according to the journalists and their colleagues, who spoke with CPJ, and reports by their outlets.

Separately, on Tuesday, a mortar shell injured at least two journalists covering armed clashes in the city.

“Iraqi forces have displayed a startling disregard for the safety of civilians and journalists covering protests in Baghdad since August 29,” said CPJ Senior Middle East and North Africa Researcher Justin Shilad. “Iraqi authorities must stop assaulting and detaining journalists, allow them to work freely, and ensure that members of the country’s security forces who attack members of the press are identified and held to account.”

Protests broke out in Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to government institutions and foreign embassies, by supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on August 29 after he announced his decision to retire from politics, according to news reports. Authorities later declared a curfew in Baghdad.

During those protests, Iraqi Special Forces arrested reporter Rokan Jaf and camera operator Gailan Sabah while they covered security forces’ dispersal of the demonstrations for the privately owned Kurdish media outlet Zoom News, according to a Facebook post by the outlet and Jaf, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app.

“Once they knew I (was) a journalist, they caught me immediately,” Jaf told CPJ, adding that he identified the members of the special forces by their black uniforms. Four Special Forces agents punched and kicked Jaf, took his phone and Sabah’s camera, and detained them both, he said.

After protestors were cleared from the area, authorities released Sabah and Jaf and returned Jaf’s phone but not Sabah’s camera, according to Jaf and Zoom News director Hemn Mahmood, who spoke to CPJ by phone. Jaf told CPJ he was not seriously injured in the incident.

Also during those protests on August 29, security forces in black uniforms assaulted Haider al-Badri, a reporter for the privately owned news channel UTV, and attempted to seize a camera from his camera operator Adulmalik Faisal, according to the Iraqi press freedom advocacy group Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) and a video posted to UTV’s Facebook page.

CPJ was unable to immediately determine whether al-Badri was injured during the incident.

Authorities also briefly detained a team with the Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera, including reporter Samir Yousif and seven others, according to a video Yousif posted on Twitter, a report by the outlet, and a journalist familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ by messaging app on the condition they not be named because they did not have permission to speak to the press. Authorities let them go after smashing the window of their car, taking their camera, and breaking it in front of them.

Security forces wearing black masks and unmarked uniforms also assaulted Ammar Ghassan, a reporter for the privately owned satellite channel Al-Rasheed TV, and his colleagues while they covered authorities’ dispersal of the protests, according to a video on the broadcaster’s Facebook page and a report by news website Baghdad Today.

In that video, Ghassan showed a bruise on his shoulder that he said was the result of the attack.

“Seven armed security forces came to us. They knew we were a TV channel crew and beat us,” he said. “They also took our mic, camera, and live stream device and destroyed my mobile phone.” CPJ was unable to immediately determine how many Al-Rasheed TV journalists were injured in the incident.

CPJ is also investigating posts on social media by Associated Press photographer Hadi Mizban, who said Iraqi security forces attacked him and took his camera and ID, and by the privately owned Iraqi news outlet Fallujah TV, which wrote that its correspondent Saif Ali was “seriously injured” while covering the protests.

CPJ messaged Mizban and Fallujah TV on Facebook to seek more details on those incidents but did not immediately receive any replies.

Yehia Rasool, a spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, who oversees the special forces, told CPJ via messaging app that the armed forces were investigating reports of special forces attacking journalists in the Green Zone, and said they would not allow such attacks to be repeated.

Separately, on Tuesday, Mustafa Latif and Kamil Raad, reporters for the privately owned Iraqi satellite channel Dijla TV, were injured by mortar fire while reporting on armed demonstrators clashing with security forces in the aftermath of the protests, according to a Facebook post from their outlet, a JFO report, and Latif, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. 

Latif told CPJ that he was injured by shrapnel in his face, Raad was hit by shrapnel in his leg, and they were both taken to the Al-Kadhimiya Hospital for treatment. Latif said he did not know the source of the mortar fire.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Monday, August 29, Iraqi security forces arrested, assaulted, or confiscated equipment from journalists with local and international outlets covering protests in Baghdad, the capital, according to the journalists and their colleagues, who spoke with CPJ, and reports by their outlets.

Separately, on Tuesday, a mortar shell injured at least two journalists covering armed clashes in the city.

“Iraqi forces have displayed a startling disregard for the safety of civilians and journalists covering protests in Baghdad since August 29,” said CPJ Senior Middle East and North Africa Researcher Justin Shilad. “Iraqi authorities must stop assaulting and detaining journalists, allow them to work freely, and ensure that members of the country’s security forces who attack members of the press are identified and held to account.”

Protests broke out in Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to government institutions and foreign embassies, by supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on August 29 after he announced his decision to retire from politics, according to news reports. Authorities later declared a curfew in Baghdad.

During those protests, Iraqi Special Forces arrested reporter Rokan Jaf and camera operator Gailan Sabah while they covered security forces’ dispersal of the demonstrations for the privately owned Kurdish media outlet Zoom News, according to a Facebook post by the outlet and Jaf, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app.

“Once they knew I (was) a journalist, they caught me immediately,” Jaf told CPJ, adding that he identified the members of the special forces by their black uniforms. Four Special Forces agents punched and kicked Jaf, took his phone and Sabah’s camera, and detained them both, he said.

After protestors were cleared from the area, authorities released Sabah and Jaf and returned Jaf’s phone but not Sabah’s camera, according to Jaf and Zoom News director Hemn Mahmood, who spoke to CPJ by phone. Jaf told CPJ he was not seriously injured in the incident.

Also during those protests on August 29, security forces in black uniforms assaulted Haider al-Badri, a reporter for the privately owned news channel UTV, and attempted to seize a camera from his camera operator Adulmalik Faisal, according to the Iraqi press freedom advocacy group Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) and a video posted to UTV’s Facebook page.

CPJ was unable to immediately determine whether al-Badri was injured during the incident.

Authorities also briefly detained a team with the Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera, including reporter Samir Yousif and seven others, according to a video Yousif posted on Twitter, a report by the outlet, and a journalist familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ by messaging app on the condition they not be named because they did not have permission to speak to the press. Authorities let them go after smashing the window of their car, taking their camera, and breaking it in front of them.

Security forces wearing black masks and unmarked uniforms also assaulted Ammar Ghassan, a reporter for the privately owned satellite channel Al-Rasheed TV, and his colleagues while they covered authorities’ dispersal of the protests, according to a video on the broadcaster’s Facebook page and a report by news website Baghdad Today.

In that video, Ghassan showed a bruise on his shoulder that he said was the result of the attack.

“Seven armed security forces came to us. They knew we were a TV channel crew and beat us,” he said. “They also took our mic, camera, and live stream device and destroyed my mobile phone.” CPJ was unable to immediately determine how many Al-Rasheed TV journalists were injured in the incident.

CPJ is also investigating posts on social media by Associated Press photographer Hadi Mizban, who said Iraqi security forces attacked him and took his camera and ID, and by the privately owned Iraqi news outlet Fallujah TV, which wrote that its correspondent Saif Ali was “seriously injured” while covering the protests.

CPJ messaged Mizban and Fallujah TV on Facebook to seek more details on those incidents but did not immediately receive any replies.

Yehia Rasool, a spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, who oversees the special forces, told CPJ via messaging app that the armed forces were investigating reports of special forces attacking journalists in the Green Zone, and said they would not allow such attacks to be repeated.

Separately, on Tuesday, Mustafa Latif and Kamil Raad, reporters for the privately owned Iraqi satellite channel Dijla TV, were injured by mortar fire while reporting on armed demonstrators clashing with security forces in the aftermath of the protests, according to a Facebook post from their outlet, a JFO report, and Latif, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. 

Latif told CPJ that he was injured by shrapnel in his face, Raad was hit by shrapnel in his leg, and they were both taken to the Al-Kadhimiya Hospital for treatment. Latif said he did not know the source of the mortar fire.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.