Bahrain

Bahraini authorities lifted a ban on the main opposition newspaper Sunday after its three top editors resigned to save the paper from a campaign to muzzle anti-government media and crack down on the Shiite opposition in the Sunni-ruled Gulf nation. Al-Wasat, the country's most popular newspaper, did not appear Sunday after Bahrain's Information Ministry ordered it to close down. Al-Wasat's online...

Reuters television producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji were released on March 28 after being held for two days but Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has meanwhile learnt that two other journalists were arrested on March 27. The London-based Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Centre identified them as Doha Hassan, who works for Orient TV and several websites...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is very worried about the fate of Stéphane Lehr, an experienced French freelance photographer working for Polaris Images, who went missing early Sunday afternoon shortly after arriving in Benghazi with a French TV crew. The head of Polaris Images, Jean-Pierre Pappis, said the last contact with Lehr was a message received at 7 a.m. New...

Jamal Al-Sharaabi, a photographer working for the local daily Al-Masdar, was one of the fatal victims when government security forces opened fire Saturday on a peaceful demonstration in Change Square, outside Sana'a university, killing at least 30 people, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Aged 35 and the father of four children, Sharaabi is the fourth...

Bahraini authorities expelled a CNN reporter and briefly detained another international reporter on Wednesday amid an intensified crackdown on political unrest. New York-based pressfreedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the Bahraini government's ongoing obstruction of news media and called for authorities to allow journalists to cover this story of international import...

Armed assailants stormed the Manama printing facility of the Bahraini independent daily Al-Wasat early Tuesday morning, damaging the press and hindering production of the day's edition. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack, which came just as military contingents from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were enlisted to help contain political unrest in the kingdom. In...

Authorities in Yemen and Bahrain are continuing to obstruct news coverage of ongoing political unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday as it called on the two government to allow journalists to work without reprisal. In Yemen, at least six international journalists were expelled since Saturday, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. In Bahrain, security forces and...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on journalists in Bahrain to put their unity above political wrangling that has divided journalists in the wake of protests movement for political changes in the kingdom. The Federation's call comes after revelations that some journalists have been blacklisted over their alleged links with the ruling royal family. "We urge journalists to...

The Bahraini security forces had previously been restrained in the way they obstructed journalists but snipers in a helicopter fired at New York Times reporter Michael Slackman and cameraman Sean Patrick Farrell as they were filming the violence in Manama’s Pearl Square on February 18. The US network security company Arbor Networks reports a 20 per cent decrease in Internet traffic in and out of...

Authorities in Bahrain, Yemen, Libya continue to prevent media from reporting on anti-government demonstrations. Bahraini authorities used live ammunition—including fire from a helicopter—against peaceful protesters and journalists on Friday. Pro-government thugs attacked two journalists in Yemen, and the Libyan government appeared to be shutting down Facebook, Twitter, and Al-Jazeera's website as...