According to pro-government daily Al-Ayam, Bahrain has now announced plans to prosecute citizens who post video footage from protests, or offer a "distorted" picture of Bahrain's "renaissance". Well-known human rights defender and Index award...
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa
Tunisia: newspaper director on hunger strike in protest at government
Nebil Jridet, General Director of the Arabic-language weekly newspaper Al-Oula, has entered his sixth day of hunger strike in protest against the Tunisian government's "unequal" distribution of state ads among newspapers. Jridet told Index that the...

New regime, same propaganda
As Egypt prepares for presidential elections in less than two weeks’ time, the country is on the brink of chaos. Tensions have been brewing for more than a year and the patience of Egyptians is wearing thin. They yearn for stability and many feel...

“My colleagues are in prison for fighting for free expression”
UPDATE: Yara Bader, Mayada Khalil, Hanadi Zahlout, Sanaa Mehsen, Razan Ghazzawi, Joan Ferso, Ayham Ghazzoui and Bassam Alahmad were released on 12 May. Five members of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression remain in prison,...
Iran: Cartoonist sentenced to 25 lashes for drawing politician
An Iranian cartoonist has been sentenced to 25 lashes after drawing a caricature of a MP. Cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraye depicted local conservative MP Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani dressed as a footballer. Iranian politicians were recently criticised for...
Egyptian journalists reportedly beaten while in military custody
Two Egyptian journalists were reportedly beaten while in military custody. Ahmed Ramadan and Islam Abu al-Ezz, of the online independent daily Al-Badil, said unidentified thugs beat them with swords while covering clashes in Cairo's Abbasiya...

Attacks against Tunisian journalists on the rise
In its annual report published on World Press Freedom Day (3 May), the National Syndicate for Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) announced that it had registered 60 physical assaults against journalists over the last year. The syndicate criticised the...
Bahrain: Index condemns the arrest of prominent rights activist Nabeel Rajab
Index condemns last night’s arrest of Index’s 2012 Award winner and head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab and the ongoing harassment of human rights activists in Bahrain

Index condemns the arrest of prominent rights activist Nabeel Rajab
Index on Censorship condemns last night’s arrest of Index’s 2012 Award winner and head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab and the ongoing harassment of human rights activists in Bahrain including the arrest of those...
New wave of violence threatens Egyptian presidential elections
Violent clashes between protesters staging a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry Headquarters in Cairo’s Abbasseya district and unknown assailants killed at least 20 people on Wednesday and left scores of others injured. The violence began in the...