CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa

Four-member TV crew killed in Iraq

Four employees of privately-owned TV station Al Sharqiya were murdered on 13 September in the northern city of Mosul. Three journalists, Musab al Azawi, Ahmed Salem and Ihab Maad, along with driver Qaidar Suleiman, were kidnapped by gunmen at...

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The view from Iran

The view from Iran

This week, four feminist bloggers were sentenced to imprisonment in Iran. In an exclusive preview of the new issue of Index on Censorhip (out next week), Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi discusses the prospects for free expression in her...

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TV station chief ordered to leave Iran

Hassan Al-Fahs, Tehran bureau chief of the Dubai-based satellite TV station Al-Arabiya, has been ordered to leave the country by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. There was widespread astonishment amongst the management of Al-Arabiya as...

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Trademark troubles

Trademark troubles

Canadian activists are the subject of a lawsuit from one of the country’s largest media organisations, writes Mordecai Briemberg In early June 2007, to mark 40 years of continuous Israeli occupation of land conquered in 1967, some people in...

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Sihem Bensedrine detained in Tunisia

Sihem Bensedrine detained in Tunisia

Index on Censorship award winner prevented from leaving country by security forces Journalist and free expression activist Sihem Bensedrine was forcibly prevented from leaving Tunisia by security forces at Tunis Airport on 19 August. The 2006 Index...

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Harry Potter imports banned

An Arab-Israeli publisher has been ordered to stop importing Arabic-language books from Syria and Lebanon. Salah Abassi gave an interview to Israeli public radio on 11 August in which he stated that the Trade and Industry Ministry had ‘warned’ him...

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Syrian dissident freed

Dissident Syrian freed Syrian dissident Aref Dalila has been freed by Syrian authorities seven years into his ten-year jail term. The economist was jailed in 2002 on charges of inciting armed rebellion, spreading false information and trying to...

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