Americans generally don’t like to use the word “war” when the country is actually in one (see: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and, increasingly, Pakistan and Yemen). Rhetorical wars, though, politicians and policy-makers love, whether it’s the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, or the amorphous War on Terror. (more…)
Notes from Syria, SI reports from the nation’s capital
Freedom House’s annual Freedom of the Press Index, released Monday at World Press Freedom Day events in Washington, show that press freedoms are on the decline throughout the world as authoritarian regimes tighten their control over new media forms of communication and as worsening violence in countries like Mexico has pushed more journalists into self-censorship. (more…)
A columnist for the independent Al-Wasat newspaper was arrested on Monday (25 April) after 30 uniformed and plainclothes police officials raided his house. Local journalists have claimed that Haidar Mohammed al-Nuaimi was dragged out of his house and beaten before being transferred to an unknown location. Human rights organisations have called on the Bahraini authorities to disclose his whereabouts and release him immediately.