Nasrin Sotoudeh, 47, writer, lawyer, and women and children’s rights activist, has been awarded PEN’s Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. The award honours international literary figures who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising...
Yemeni authorities detained the editor of Al-Shahid at a checkpoint on 25 April. Abdel Aziz al-Majidi was prevented from entering the Taiz province to report on the region. In a separate incident on the same day, security forces encircled the house...
Iranian journalist Nazanin Khosravani was sentenced to six years in jail on 19 April after being convicted of impinging on national security and conducting propaganda against the regime. She was arrested in November 2009 and had her computer and...
ASwiss television channel claimed on 18 April that two of its reporters were detained without charge in Qatar for 13 days. The RTS network alleges that the pair were in the country to shoot a documentary about Qatar hosting the World Cup in 2022....
Six men raided the office of a news website, Al-Muharrir, in Amman on 19 April. Unidentified men broke into the personal office of editor-in-chief Jihad Abu Baidar and threatened to kill him if he did not withdraw a report criticising the country’s...
As Bahraini soldiers — aided by foreign troops — crush protests, youth activist Mohammed Al-Maskati whose family have been detained, asks the international community to speak out
Syrian security forces killed three people on Sunday (17 April) when they opened fire on mourners attending the funeral of another slain protester. The funeral procession had turned into a protest against the government. The incident took place...
The Syrian authorities have arrested an Algerian freelance journalist working for a French radio station. Khaled Sid Mohnad was picked up on 9 April and is thought to be in a Damascus prison. His arrest follows that of Syrian writer and former...
A supporter of Bahrain’s anti-government movement was found dead in police custody on 9 April. Whilst the opposition party described the death of Rashid Zakaria Hassan, 40, as "mysterious", government officials claim that he died of complications...
Soldiers in black ski masks took control of the Salmaniya Medical Complex on 11 April as the civil unrest in Bahrain continues. At least a dozen doctors and medical support officers have been arrested in the last month and many more are missing....