A journalist critical of the proposed union between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia has been arrested in Manama. Freelance journalist Ahmed Radhi was arrested on Wednesday (16 May), after he appeared on an interview on BBC Arabic Radio, and suggested that...
A "farewell note" from prominent Egyptian journalist and popular talk show host Yosri Fouda, posted on his Facebook wall and published in Al Badeel independent newspaper on Thursday, sent shockwaves across a country bracing itself for its first...
Three journalists have been beaten by police officers in northwest Pakistan. Sher Ali Khan from TV station News One, Siraj Ali of Geo News, and Shabir Ahmed from Pakhtunkhuwa News daily were targeted by police officers while trying to cover a...
Nebil Jridet, General Director of the Arabic-language weekly newspaper Al-Oula has ended his hunger strike. Jridet spent seven days on hunger strike in protest at Tunisian government’s “unequal” distribution of state advertisements among...
The editor of a Iraqi Kurdish magazine has been arrested for reprinting an allegedly blasphemous article. Hamin Ary, editor of Kurdish and Arabic monthly publication Chirpa (Al-Hamsah in Arabic) was arrested on 7 May after publishing an article by...
The dead body of a kidnapped Pakistani journalist was discovered in Karachi last week. Tariq Kamal was kidnapped on 6 May, along with his friend Fawad Sheikh, who was also murdered. Kamal was visiting a dangerous area of Balochistan for an...
A sentence handed to an Iranian cartoonist may be quashed after the MP who brought the case withdrew his complaint. Mahmoud Shokraye faced 25 lashes after local conservative MP Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani took offence at a caricature the artist had drawn....
An Iranian rapper has been issued with fatwas and faced death threats after releasing a controversial song. Shahin Najafi, an Iranian singer based in Germany, released a song containing references to one of the 12 Shia Muslim Imams. The song, which...
On 5 May the Bahraini regime arrested prominent human rights activist and 2012 Index award winner Nabeel Rajab for inciting violence on social networking sites. This is the second time Rajab has been arrested for so-called "cyber crimes", and last...
Six months after Tunisia’s first free elections, the country’s newspapers are filled with nostalgic longing for its former dictator. Even if his rule was a "veritable one-man-show", muses La Presse, "was his dictatorship really harmful to Tunisia?"...