Tunisian prime minister Hamadi Jebali has outlined government plans to “secure the electronic space of the country”, sparking fears that the government plans to reinstate internet censorship. The programme will bring together a team of experts not...
Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa recently secured an invite to Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee luncheon. According to the Daily Mail, the Queen invited King Hamad because it “would have been very rude to have left anyone off of the list.”...
Mohammad Solimaninya, an Internet and social network expert who has been detained for the past three months, is reportedly being pressured to work with the Iranian government on the creation of a National Internet. Solimaninya ran u24, a popular...
Index’s new CEO Kirsty Hughes calls on the organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix to cancel the race
10 April 2012 (IFEX-TMG) - The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) Tunisia Monitoring Group (IFEX-TMG), a coalition of 21 IFEX members which includes Index, is alarmed by ongoing attacks targeting journalists, artists, performers...
On 11 April the Tunisian Cabinet lifted a ban on protesting on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis. In a communiqué released on 28 March, the Interior Ministry prohibited all “forms of collective expression” on the avenue, after receiving “complaints”...
Kuwaiti writer Mohamed al-Melify was jailed for seven years on Monday on charges of spreading false statements via Twitter. He was arrested last February, and the Kuwait Criminal Court found him guilty of spreading false news about sectarian...
Eminent Turkish free expression champion Ragip Zarakolu was freed from prison in Turkey pending trial along with 14 others yesterday. Zarakolu, director of the Belge Publishing House, which has published works on taboo subjects such as the Armenian...
Open letter: Bahrain risks instigating a collapse of its civic society if it fails to release activist and hunger striker Abdulhadi Alkhawaja. Index joins rights organisations, politicians and academics in calling on Bahrain’s ruler to release him immediately
Increased anger within Bahrain's opposition over the continued detention of well-known activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja has renewed concerns over whether Formula 1's organising body should allow the controversial race to go ahead on 20-22 April. Over...