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...
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa

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...
Four Iranian bloggers sentenced for six months
A Tehran court has passed six-month prison sentences on four female bloggers, found guilty under article 500 of the Islamic criminal code. The four women were charged for articles that appeared in two online newspapers that defend women’s rights in...
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...

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...
Editor arrested for article on labour practices
Amare Aregawi, editor for Ethiopian weekly the Reporter, was arrested on 22 August in connection with a libel case lodged by the Dashen brewery in Gondar. The lawsuit was filed following the publication of an article about two former brewery...

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...
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...
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...
CPS will not prosecute over killing of Terry Lloyd
The Crown Prosecution Service stated there is 'insufficient evidence' to prosecute any US soldier over the death of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq. On 22 March 2003 Terry Lloyd was injured in crossfire between Iraqi troops and American tanks...