Sihem Bensedrine and her husband Omar Mestiri were seized by customs officials upon their arrival at la Goulette port on 3 March. Awarded the 2008 peace prize by the Danish Peace Foundation, Bensedrine is president of the working group on press...
The murder of Shahab Al-Tamimi highlights the difficulties faced by Iraqis trying to build a free press and civil society, say Dave Anderson and Gary Kent Are we becoming inured to the murders of journalists and civil society leaders in Iraq? The...
Hassan Nobakhtian, the editor of conservative website Nosaki, was arrested on 25 February, despite having had no complaints brought against him. The arrest took place 11 days after Nosaki was banned by Tehran prosecutor-general Said Mortazavi....
The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has ruled that minutes of cabinet meetings in the days leading up to the Iraq war should be released. Explaining the proposed break in protocol, where cabinet minutes are kept secret, Thomas said the...
A Tunisian comic may have paid a high price for making fun of the country’s leader, writes Rohan Jayasekera Index on Censorship is calling for the release of Tunisian comedian Hédi Ouled Baballah, who has been jailed on the basis of suspect...
The release of a draft of the British government’s dossier on Iraqi weapons confirms suspicions but also raises more questions, writes Chris Ames Monday’s release of the John Williams draft of the Iraq “weapons of mass destruction” dossier shows...
The 2002 draft of the British government’s dossier on Saddam Hussein’s weapons capabilities has been released by the Foreign Office. The government had initially tried to keep the document confidential, but the Information Commissioner ruled that...
Iran’s Commission for Press Authorisation and Surveillance has suspended feminist monthly Zanan (Women) for “publishing information detrimental to society’s psychological tranquillity”. Hengameh Golestan reports Zanan has been published regularly...
On 19 January, three domestic news and opinion websites were blocked to users in Yemen by the government-owned Internet provider. The sites joined a list of at least five others that have been censored without any official explanation. News site...
Rashid Majid Al-Sari, editor of biweekly newspaper Al Fatah, was arrested and his computer and personal files confiscated by US troops at his Baghdad home on 18 January. Al Fatah is affiliated to Sayyid Al Shuhada, a Shia party founded in 1991. It...