A Lebanese playwright has exposed the farcical sensitivity of the country’s Censorship Bureau, Padraig Reidy writes
Whatever you write about, don’t write about the censors
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CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa
Egypt’s retro crackdown on dissent
Prosecuting Egyptian dissenters was common practice under deposed president Hosni Mubarak with regime loyalists often fabricating charges against opponents to silence them. Shahira Amin reports on the latest wave of intimidation by the country’s current military regime.
Qatar students petition to ban books
A group of students at the University of Qatar have started a petition to remove “inappropriate” books from the university library.
Report finds challenges to digital freedom in Palestine
The internet is a vital platform for Palestinians to express themselves, but web access and targeting of social media users, bloggers and journalists remain big challenges, Milana Knezevic writes.
Tunisian rappers convicted of “insulting public servants” after concert arrest
Sudan censors target columnists
Khartoum authorities are barring critical journalists from writing, says Zeinab Mohammed Salih
Journalists caught in Egypt’s crossfire
In Egypt’s bitterly polarized and often dangerous environment, it is the journalists covering the unrest that are caught in the middle, facing detention, intimidation, assault and sometimes, even death, Shahira Amin writes
Egypt’s spring turns to winter
As the numbers steadily mount of those killed by the Egyptian military and police in yesterday’s attacks on Muslim Brotherhood camps, the prospects for Egypt’s ‘Arab spring’ are looking bleak, Kirsty Hughes says
Being a gay poet in Iran: ‘Writing on the edge of crisis’
Iran’s government has been increasing pressure on writers and artists over the past few years, but its heavy hand does not strike evenly.
Egyptian media reflects xenophobic sentiment of military
Xenophobia in general and anti-US sentiment, in particular, have peaked in Egypt since the June 30 rebellion that toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and the Egyptian media has in recent weeks, been fuelling both. Shahira Amin reports