Journalism
Recommended Reading—Atar
The contributors for MER Issue 310 have relied on their own experiences in Sudan, their personal networks and a few important news sources to inform their grounded analyses. One of these sources that drew the editors’ attention is Atar: a Sudanese publication...The Kurdish Women’s Movement and Turkey’s Transnational ‘Feminicide’
On January 9, 2023, thousands of demonstrators from across Europe gathered in Paris to participate in marches organized by Kurdish groups. Demonstrators were mourning a triple killing of Kurdish activists that occurred in Paris just two weeks before the march. The day...Transnational Repression Against Exiled Women Activists
In Spring 2011, as the uprising against Bashar Al-Assad erupted in Syria, Sana, the daughter of Syrian exiles living in Canada, began engaging in online activism. Her support for the revolution rapidly gained traction among fellow Syrians and a widening global...The Legal Webs of Transnational Repression
On October 2, 2018, Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi was killed in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. Intelligence services quickly determined his death to be a targeted assassination ordered by the Saudi crown prince. The instance was a brazen act of transnational...How a Tree Became a Voice—A Collective Reflection on the Iraqi Media Platform, Jummar
We launched the Iraqi independent media platform, Jummar, in October of 2022 with the goal of serving as “an independent Iraqi media initiative that seeks to pave the way for creative and ethical journalism in and about Iraq.”[1] The publication of this collective...Reporting from Tunis
In the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, Tunisian journalist Bassam Bounenni published an article on the dissident digital news site, Nawaat. In it, he criticized the media’s practices under fallen dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben ‘Ali (1987-2011). For the media to play a...Normalizing the Surveillance State—Cybersecurity Cooperation and the Abraham Accords
The new, and not-so-new, cyber dimension of Arab-Israeli normalization.
Organizing for Digital Rights—An Interview with Mohamad Najem of SMEX
Activists are fighting for an online civic space.
Big Tech’s Partnership with Authoritarianism
A perspective on the role of major tech corporations in fueling repression.
The Kurdish Women’s Movement and Turkey’s Transnational ‘Feminicide’
On the Turkish state’s targeting of dissidents abroad.
MERIP’s Place in the Political and Media Landscape — An interview with Joe Stork and Chris Toensing
Joe Stork is one of the founders of MERIP and served as the editor of Middle East Report until 1995. He went on to be deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. Chris Toensing was executive director of MERIP and editor of Middle East Report from 2000 to 2017 and since 2018 is a senior editor at the International Crisis Group. They were interviewed by Lisa Hajjar, professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and MERIP editorial committee member, in September 2021.
Reflections on MERIP’s First 25 Years
I was among a small group of activists who started the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) in early 1971 and was chief editor of its monthly flagship publication, MERIP Reports (later Middle East Report) until 1995. Some of us had served in the Peace Corps or other volunteer organizations in the Middle East in the mid 1960s and had come together as an informal “Middle East caucus” in the Committee of Returned Volunteers, an anti-Vietnam War group.
