Egyptian author Youssef Ziedan faces a five-year jail term after being accused of insulting Christianity in his prize-winning novel Azazeel (Beelzebub). Set in 5th-century Egypt, Alexandria and northern Syria, Ziedan's novel tells the story of an...
Hundreds of university students assaulted a local parliament building in Erbil, the capital of Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdistan region on 10 May. The students were taking part in an angry protest against the abduction and killing of Kurdish student...
Maziar Bahari sentenced by Iran in absentia — 13 years and 6 months in jail and 74 lashes
Freelance journalist Sardasht Osman was found dead yesterday in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Osman, who was abducted on 5 May, had been tortured and shot twice. His family believe he was targeted because of a critical article...
Elton John was banned from playing a private show on 18 May after the head of Egypt’s musician union denounced his “anti-religious sentiments”. Union head Mounir al Wasimi said John should not be allowed to perform in Egypt because he is “a...
Twoal-Jazeera reporters were prevented from covering a demonstration in the West Bank on Friday by the Israeli military. They were detained for four and a half hours before being released and told to never return. Cameraman Majdi Bannoura and...
A team of lawyers called for the ban of Arabic classic A Thousand and One Nights on 17 April. The lawyers, from the "Actio popularis" group, filed a complaint with the prosecutor general, demanding that the book be confiscated and its publishers...
Index on Censorship contributor
Fred Halliday has died at the age of 64. Here, we republish a typically insightful Halliday article on the Islamic Republic of Iran from 2001
The editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper al-Shahid, Saad al-Aossi, was abducted on 14 April. Armed men invaded his home, confiscated his computer and took him to an unknown location. There have been local reports that the men were from the...
The building of 14 October, a Yemeni national media company, was overrun by soldiers on 21 April in order to confiscate the latest issue of Al-Tariq, a daily newspaper it publishes. The reason for seizing the outlet was that the newspaper ran a...