On 16 February a court postponed the trial of Samir Feriani to 1 March. Ferani is charged with “distributing false information”, and “accusing...
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa
Syria: Free expression activists arrested
Activists in Syria have reported that the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus was raided today. Between 12 and 14 people...
Bahrain: Hunger strike activist collapses
Bahraini activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja collapsed last night while on hunger strike. Alkhawaja, who went on hunger strike ahead of the February 14...
Syria: Protesters’ text messages blocked using Irish equipment
The Syrian government has ordered text messages containing politically sensitive words to be blocked. Sources familiar with the country's filtering...
Saudi Arabia: Hamza Kashgari “repents”, family member says
Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari has repented for his tweets deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, according to a family member. They said...
Iran: Jailed blogger’s wife and daughter reportedly kidnapped
Iranian blogger Mehdi Khazali's wife and daughter have allegedly been kidnapped by security forces and moved to an unknown location, it was...
Malaysia: Hamza Kashgari deported unlawfully, lawyers claim
Lawyers representing Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari have said there are no immigration records of his deportation from Malaysia last Sunday,...
Tunisia: Journalist accused of filming Nessma TV trial faces fine
On Sunday, 13 February, the Tunis court of first instance ordered Cheker Besbes, a journalist for the private radio station Mosaique FM, to pay a...
Bahrain: Human rights activist Nabeel Rajab detained at protests
Prominent human rights activist and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab, was reportedly detained today while...
Bahrain: Index spotlight on 14 February
14 February marks the one year anniversary of mass protests in Bahrain. Index on Censorship looks back at how free expression has been curtailed in the past year’s crackdown on social unrest