The freedom of expression crisis in the Middle East and North Africa continued throughout the year, overshadowed by war in Gaza and Lebanon that risked spreading across the region. Governments such as Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Iran Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) weaponised their legal systems to punish any public or perceived dissent, and stifled the rights to peaceful assembly, association and freedom of expression. Writers, journalists, human rights defenders, activists and bloggers continued to be arbitrarily arrested, detained for prolonged periods without trial, and to face trumped-up charges solely in relation to their work or critical views. Others were systematically targeted by repressive tactics aimed at silencing them, including judicial harassment, smear campaigns, threats and intimidation, physical assaults, and travel bans. These, along with worrying signs of a resort to transnational repression, exerted a chilling effect on freedom of expression across the region.  

The rapid downfall of dictator Bashar Al-Assad in Syria raised hopes for a better future after decades of death, destruction, and widespread and systematic censorship and repression. However, the future of freedom of expression in the country remains in doubt, due to the Baathist regime’s legacy; civil war; and fears about the political and ideological affiliation of the current government. Tens of thousands of Syrian families are continuing to seek answers about the fate of their relatives, victims of enforced disappearance, including the prominent Syrian blogger and human rights defender Razan Zaitouneh (see Case List 2014). Accountability for these crimes is essential if the country is to heal. 

Media freedom in jeopardy 

Governments maintained strict censorship over media and online spaces and severely punished critical voices. The region was the deadliest for the killing of journalists in 2024, according to CPJ. Most were killed in Gaza by Israel, but killings of journalists and media workers also occurred in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. 

In Algeria, authorities expanded online censorship by using vaguely worded ‘national security’ offences. In Jordan, authorities weaponised the repressive Cybercrime Law, using it to imprison Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha for a year in relation to her investigative reporting on Jordan's shipment of goods to Israel. Israel enforced strict censorship on reporting on the war in Gaza, including by banning foreign reporters from Gaza and shutting down Al Jazeera inside Israel in May.  In September, heavily armed Israeli soldiers raided and closed Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau in Ramallah, an area under Palestinian control. 

In February, authorities in Egypt questioned and briefly held prominent journalist Lina Atallah  in relation to Mada Masr’s 2023 reporting on the potential displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt as a result of Israel’s Gaza offensive. Authorities revived the investigation in retaliation for Mada Masr’s reporting of a corruption scandal involving a businessman with close connections to President Al-Sisi.  

The old rule book of arbitrary detention and imprisonment 

Regrettably, 2024 saw no let-up in the long-standing abuse of detention and imprisonment in the region to silence those expressing dissenting views. Scores of writers, journalists, human rights defenders and activists in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Morocco, and the UAE also faced threats, intimidation, physical attacks, smear campaigns, travel bans, and asset freezes. Writers released from prison, many suffering ill-health as a result of their prison conditions, often faced continued repression, harming their psychological health and impeding their ability to write.  

A disturbing new development was the move to transnational repression, spearheaded by the UAE when it successfully requested extradition from Lebanon of Turkish-Egyptian poet Abdel Rahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi on alleged national security-related charges, shortly after he expressed critical views of the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi in a video message , creating a climate of fear among exiled critics across the region.   

In Algeria, poet and prominent activist Mohamed Tadjadit spent nine months in pre-trial detention on fabricated charges in relation to his online expression before being released following a presidential pardon (see Algeria section below). Artist, poet, and activist Djamila Bentouis, a French-Algerian national, was released in December after serving nine months of an 18-month sentence for her song about the Hirak protest movement, which overthrew former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019. Award-winning French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal was arrested in November on national security-related charges in retaliation for his views (see Algeria section below).  

At the end of the year, British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah continued to be held in prison arbitrarily, without access to a lawyer or consular visits in Egypt, beyond expiry of his five-year prison term. Poet Galal El-Behairy was also held arbitrarily despite having exceeded the maximum legal limit of pre-trial detention in September 2023. Journalist Khaled Mamdouh and cartoonist and translator Ashraf Omar both remained in pre-trial detention at the end of the year, facing fabricated security-related charges following their arrest in July (see Egypt section below). 

Iran maintained its brutal, decades-long crackdown on peaceful dissent, severely restricting freedom of assembly, stifling free expression, and targeting critical voices supporting the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protest movement. A new, massive, draconian campaign imposing prison, flogging and fines as punishment for defiance of the compulsory hijab laws started in April, severely impacting women and girls’ bodily autonomy and freedom of expression and belief. Behind prison walls, writers were among those held in deplorable conditions. PEN International heard accounts of the authorities' ongoing use of deliberate medical negligence as a punishment for expressing critical views of the government.  Writer, human rights defender and Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi saw her total  sentence increased to 35 years, while Baha’i poet and teacher Mahvash Sabet also remained arbitrarily imprisoned. The two writers were denied access to adequate medical care and their health deteriorated significantly throughout the year, with both temporarily released in December on medical grounds (see Iran section below).  

The UAE continued to impose a zero-tolerance policy against dissent, subjecting scores of human rights activists and critical voices, including writers and poets, to arbitrary detention, unfair trials and lengthy prison sentences. A fresh unfair mass trial launched in December 2023, despite human rights organisations’ calls on the UAE to release unjustly imprisoned critics ahead of the COP28 climate conference, resulted in the sentencing of 53 men to terms ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment. Most had already spent over a decade in prison, and included Emirati academic and human rights defender Mohamed Al-Roken, who continued to be held after his unjust 10-year sentence ended in July 2022 (see Case Lists 2010 to 2023-2024), and poet and blogger Ahmed Mansoor (see UAE section below).  

Harassment and reprisals 

Authorities in Egypt also continued to target poet and activist Ahmed Douma through a travel ban, asset freeze, smear campaigns, physical attacks and judicial harassment in a bid to silence him following his release (see Egypt section below). According to local human rights organisations, El-Maraya publishing house in Cairo faced reprisals for its attempt to publish a second edition of Douma’s poetry collection Curly, including a police raid where books and computers were confiscated and a ban on participating in the Cairo Book fair.   

In Morocco, journalists Omar Radi and  Soulaiman Raissouni continued to face threats and smear campaigns by pro-government media outlets after their release, while prominent academic Maati Monjib remained unable to travel, work, or access his assets, despite all three receiving royal pardons in July (see Morocco section below). In the Occupied West Bank, Palestinian writer and activist Ahed Tamimi remained under a travel ban and movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities throughout the year (see Israel/Palestine section below). 

Occupation and conflict: a death knell for freedom of expression 

The war in Gaza continued to have a devastating impact on freedom of expression across the region. A staggering number of writers and journalists were targeted, killed, displaced, or arbitrarily detained across the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in Lebanon in the deadliest war for writers since WWII. According to PEN International’s research, since 7 October 2023 at least 23 writers (excluding artists and cultural sector workers) have been killed by Israeli bombardment, six of them in 2024, while Israel was responsible for the deaths of 85 journalists, almost 70%of all journalists killed worldwide during the year, according to CPJ. Such a massive loss of life represents a colossal blow to Palestinian cultural and media sectors and poses a significant challenge to the immediate safety of writers and journalists, as well as their ability to recover after the war ends. Coupled with the ongoing displacement of writers – such as that of Mosab Abu Toah who was forced to leave Gaza in 2023 (see Case list 2023/2024) – and the widespread and systematic destruction of most of Gaza's infrastructure including cultural heritage sites, schools, universities, bookstores, and cultural institutions, libraries (among them the Edward Said Public Library, Gaza’s first English language library), , these distressing statistics unveil a concerted effort to erase Palestinian culture, risking irreparable damage to the Palestinian people and their right to participate in cultural life.  

The destruction of schools has been particularly shocking. According to the UN, more than 95% of all school buildings across the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, with more than 72%directly hit by Israeli bombardment, leaving more than 658,000 students with no access to formal education for more than 15 months. Pending reconstruction of schools and recruitment of teachers, children’s ability to develop and enjoy their creative expression in later life will be severely impaired, depriving us all of a crucially important Gazan perspective on life and the world.  

Similarly during the escalation of conflict in Lebanon, Israel destroyed and damaged vast swathes of critical civilian infrastructure, including homes, businesses, agriculture establishments, municipal buildings, and healthcare and educational facilities, particularly in the south. The sharp escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in September triggered mass displacement of 1.2 million civilians, about 100,000 of whom remain displaced. 

PEN International pays tribute to the ongoing efforts to document and ensure accountability for the grave violations of international law committed since October 2023. Despite attempts to undermine UN agencies, smear campaigns against UN experts, and attacks on the International Criminal Court (ICC) (which issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,  as well as for Hamas commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri), UN experts and international human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, concluded that Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza since October 2023.   

In September 2024, PEN International adopted a resolution condemning the alarming increase in targeted killings, arbitrary detentions, and restrictions on access to information in Palestine and Israel since 7 October 2023, noting that Israeli authorities were primarily responsible for these violations. The resolution called on the international community to support swift, independent, and transparent investigations into the killings of writers and journalists and to work towards ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine in line with international law. 

At the time of writing, despite the ceasefire in Gaza, the future for Palestinians looks increasingly bleak, with escalating attacks in the occupied West Bank, and threats to forcibly transfer the entire population of Gaza to Egypt and Jordan. 

Lebanese and Palestinian writers told PEN International of the far-reaching impact of the war on their ability to work and creatively express themselves. Writers in Gaza described their traumatic experiences of losing dozens of family members; enforced displacement and loss of their homes; starvation; spread of disease and lack of vital healthcare services and medicines, leading to avoidable health harms. In one case, a writer reported losing 45 members of his extended family due to the Israeli bombardment that hit their houses since October 2023. His wife suffered from a back injury and was unable to receive treatment due to the war, while his brother lost sight in one eye due to the lack of vital medicines, including diabetes and blood pressure medicines. Another related the trauma of having to leave their home and walk long miles to reach the designated humanitarian zone, while surviving Israeli forces shooting at displaced civilians to force them to walk faster. A PEN member in Lebanon lost his home and his family home due to the indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas, including a huge personal library. 

Despite the ongoing push back from some states, led by Israel and the USA, human rights, accountability and justice must be at the forefront of negotiations to end the war. Achieving a peace that enables all to live their lives in dignity requires meaningful participation for Palestinians, respect for international law, and freedom of expression for all to be placed at the heart of decision making. 

Good news 

In July, PEN International welcomed the release of Moroccan journalists Omar Radi, Soulaiman Raissouni and Taoufik Bouachrine after receiving royal pardons from King Mohamed VI, and also the temporary or conditional releases in Iran of Sedigheh Vasmaghi in April and Narges  Mohammadi and Mahvash Sabet in Decem