The office of Ma’an Network, a news agency based in Gaza City, was attacked by masked assailants. According to local reports, staff at the main office saw the building on fire in the early hours of Sunday morning. After initial investigations,...
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa

Silencing the voice of freedom in Syria
The Asad regime’s determination to win the propaganda war has led to the assassination of Hama protest singer Ibrahim Qashoush says Salwa Ismail
Journalist released, deported from Yemen
New Zealand journalist Glen Johnson has been released from custody in Yemen and was deported to Dubai earlier today, Index on Censorship has learned. Johnson, 28, was arrested in southern Yemen in late June. Yemen ranks at 170 out of 178 countries...
Syrian journalist Omar al-Asaad arrested
Officials arrested Omar al-Asaad, a Syrian journalist and activist, on Sunday evening (3 July) at a funeral for a fellow protester killed in Damascus. Asaad wrote for a number of Arabic newspapers, including Al-Hayat and Aljazeera. Earlier in the...

Kiwi journalist in Yemen prison
The arrest and detention of a Kiwi journalist lays bare the risks and calculations taken by foreign journalists in Yemen. Iona Craig reports from Sana’a
Egypt: Tear gas fired at protesters demanding justice for “martyrs”
Tear gas was fired at protesters in Tahrir Square this week as hundreds of Egyptians demanded faster action against former senior officials who are currently awaiting trial. On Tuesday evening, families of the 840 people killed in February’s mass...
“Any movement that’s feminine has to be cut” – Ballet in Iran
Earlier this week I was working with the ballet maestro Jean-Pascal Cabardos, who trained Billy for Billy Elliot. Not that Little Black Fish has been dancing en pointe (we were working on texts), though I have indulged in the ballet craze that has...
Syrian protesters in UK report threats
Syrian anti-government protesters in London have received threatening phone calls and house visits from Syrian embassy officials, they claim. Though the protesters cannot be arrested by embassy officials, the government can threaten to detain...
Iraq: Cameraman killed by car bomb
Afaq.tv cameraman, Salem Alwan Al-Gharabi, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in southern Iraq on Tuesday. At least 27 people were killed in the double car bomb attack outside a government compound in Diwaniya, a city 275 km south of Baghdad....

Israeli radio station targeted by fake free speech campaign
Activists have attacked the Army Radio with a bizarre phone message scam, reports Daniella Peled