Two female journalists have been assaulted by police whilst covering protests in Tunisia. Sana Farhat of French-language daily Le Temps and Maha Ouelhezi from news website Web Manager Center were assaulted by plain clothed officers as they...
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa
Iran: Clampdown on internet use
Police in Iran have begun a heavy clampdown on internet freedom ahead of parliamentary elections in March, as tighter regulations on internet cafe use are introduced. Under the new rules, cafe owners will have to take the forename, surname,...
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood plans to sue independent newspaper for libel
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood today announced plans to sue an independent newspaper for allegedly insulting the leader and its female members. Newspaper Al-Fagr published an article on 29 December by Mohamed al-Baz in which he reviewed a book written...
Syrian journalist dies after being shot by gunmen
A Syrian journalist with gunshot wounds in the head died on 2 January after three days in a Damascus hospital. Shukri Ahmed Ratib Abu Burghul was reportedly shot in the face deliberately on 30 December after hosting his weekly programme on Radio...
Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil ends hunger strike after 130 days
Imprisoned blogger Maikel Nabil ended his 130-day hunger strike on Saturday after being transferred to a prison hospital on 1 January following allegations of abuse in the jail where he has been held since March 2011. Mark Nabil, the blogger's...
Justice Denied in Bahrain: Freedom of Expression and Assembly Curtailed
The following report documents the findings of a delegation comprised of representatives from six international rights groups (three members and three partners of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, IFEX), which carried out a...
Egypt: NGO offices raided by security forces
Egyptian security forces reportedly raided the offices of at least seventeen local and international NGOs yesterday. Authorities confiscated files, computers and records from the human rights and pro-democracy organisations. The raided...
Victory for women protesters subjected to “virginity tests”
A Cairo civilian court has ordered an end to the practice of forced virginity tests on female detainees in military prisons. Judge Ali Fekry, head of the Egyptian Administrative Court, read out the ruling at noon on Tuesday in a courtroom packed...
A day with released Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah
Veteran Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah has finally been released pending investigation from the Cairo Criminal Court Sunday after being detained for 56 days. He comes home to his family and his 20-day-old son, who was born while his father was...

Blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah released pending investigation
Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah (@alaa) has reportedly been released, after being detained since 30 October. Abdel Fattah's sister, Mona Seif (@monasosh) sent a twitter message saying that Abdel Fattah will be released. While Abdel Fattah has...