Bahrain announced the deportation of four foreign activists for "taking part in illegal demonstrations" on 18 February, bringing the number of those expelled over the past week to 12. The official BNA news agency reported on Friday that the four...
Nasreddine Ben Saida, the general director of the Arabic-language daily newspaper Attounissia, has become the first media executive to be jailed in post Ben Ali era. Ben Saida, was not jailed for criticising the President, nor the government. He...
Three Tunisian journalists have been arrested on charges of offending public morality following the publication of a nude photograph. The Attounissia newspaper printed a photograph of Real-Madrid footballer Sami Khedira covering the breasts of his...
On 16 February a court postponed the trial of Samir Feriani to 1 March. Ferani is charged with “distributing false information”, and “accusing a public employee of violating law without proof". Feriani, a former senior official at the Interior...
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 were arrested, with blogger Razan Ghazzawi said to be among them. Ghazzawi was arrested in December...
Bahraini activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja collapsed last night while on hunger strike. Alkhawaja, who went on hunger strike ahead of the February 14 anniversary of mass protests in Bahrain, was taken to the hospital where he was given IV treatment...
The Syrian government has ordered text messages containing politically sensitive words to be blocked. Sources familiar with the country's filtering system say that Irish technology is being used to prevent the delivery of text messages including...
Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari has repented for his tweets deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, according to a family member. They said Kashgari, 23, "has affirmed to his family that he stands by his repentance, that he has made a mistake and...
Iranian blogger Mehdi Khazali's wife and daughter have allegedly been kidnapped by security forces and moved to an unknown location, it was reported yesterday. Khazali, a staunch critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's state policies,...
Lawyers representing Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari have said there are no immigration records of his deportation from Malaysia last Sunday, suggesting the columnist may have been sent back to his native country in violation of international laws...