On Monday, Iran prevented filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb from boarding a flight to Paris in order to attend the Toronto film festival, where his documentary about the detained filmmaker Jafar Panahi will be shown. The film shows a day in the life of...
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa
Egypt: Authorities freeze new satellite TV station licenses
Military rulers in Egypt have frozen licenses for new private satellite TV stations, claiming they are inciting violence in an “increasingly chaotic media scene.” Activists are claiming that these restrictions on freedom of expression are similar...
Yemen: Journalists in further attacks
Two Yemeni journalists were attacked by armed men on Monday. Abdul al-Hafeez al-Hatami from news website Al-Sahwa Net and Raafat al-Amiri, cameraman for Suhail TV, an opposition news station, were covering the rising prices of oil in the western...
Iran: Magazine closed down amid row over satirical image
Iranian magazine Shahrvand-e-Emrooz was closed this week for after publishing a satirical front-page image depicting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being lectured by his Chief-of-Staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. The image, published last month,...
Syria: Journalist arrested, held without charge
A Syrian journalist has been arrested by security forces in Damascus. Amer Matar, from pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat was arrested on Saturday, though reasons for this are still unclear. Before his arrest, Matar emailed a friend a copy of his will,...
Azerbaijan: Reporter abducted, forced to cross Iranian border
A journalist claims he was kidnapped and expelled from Azerbaijan. Yafez Hasanov, an Azerbaijani correspondent from Radio Azadliq, part of Radio Free Europe, was in Naxcivan investigating the death of airport technician Turaz Zeynalov, when he was...
Iran considers banning Chinese-printed error-ridden Korans
Iranian publishers are reeling after measures to save money when printing the Koran backfired this week. In an attempt to make cheaper, mass distribution editions available, the Holy Book was produced and printed in China. But the copies, already...
Libya: Overcoming the challenges
The world has been watching with bated breath as a third Arab authoritarian regime collapses. Crowds of jubilant Libyans continue to throng the capital's Green Square to celebrate the end of Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year reign of tyranny and...
Syria: Famous cartoonist attacked
Syrian political cartoonist Ali Farzat was abducted for several hours yesterday while driving home from his office in Damascus. The masked members of security forces broke Farzat's left hand, which he uses to draw his famous cartoons, and burnt him...
Palestine: Jenin Freedom Theatre faces another attack
The Freedom Theatre in Jenin's refugee camp came under attack by the the Israel Defence Force in the early morning of 22 August. Having been notified that soldiers were surrounding the theatre, Acting General Manager Jacob Gough arrived at the...