Saudi Arabia’s only film festival was cancelled at the last hour after apparent religious pressure within the highly conservative Islamic kingdom. The Jeddah film festival, which was scheduled to open on Saturday had planned to be a rare showcase for movie-makers in Saudi Arabia, a country where cinemas were banned for almost three decades. Read more here
Azerbaijani bloggers, Adnan Hadji Zadeh and Emin Mili, have lost their appeal for release and are being detained for two months pending trial on hooliganism charges. Media rights group, Reporters sans Frontieres say the charges are without grounds and that the bloggers have been assaulted. Read more here
Al-Jazeera has resumed its broadcasts in the West Bank, after a ban on it was lifted by the Palestinian Authority. Last week’s ban came after a guest on the station accused Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas of collaborating with Israel to have Yasser Arafat killed. Read more here
Google is not liable for defamatory comments that appear in news articles, blogs and forums displayed in its search results, a high court judge in London has concluded in a landmark ruling for UK defamation law. Mr Justice Eady ruled in a judgment in the high court that Google was a “facilitator” and not a publisher of the content. Read more here