Saudi Arabia

27 February 2014

Saudi Arabia: Call for independent probe into journalist’s death in police raid

Reporters Without Borders has called for an investigation into the death of Hussein Ali Madan Al-Faraj, a photographer and cameraman known as the “Revolution’s Journalist”, in the eastern governorate of Al-Qatif on February 20. Police killed Hussein Al-Faraj during a raid on the town of Al-Awamiyah with the aim of locating participants in a long series of anti-government protests in the...

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19 February 2014

Saudi Arabia: Authorities urged to free journalist sentenced to 12 years in jail

A 12-year jail sentence has been passed by a Riyadh court on Wadji Al-Ghazzawi, the owner of Al-Fajr TV and host of a programme called “Al-Fadfada” (Relaxed Conversation), for accusing Saudi Arabia of links with terrorism and Al-Qaeda in particular. In its February 4 sentence, the court also banned Ghazzawi from leaving the country for 20 years after completing his jail sentence and from ever...

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7 February 2014
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Saudi Arabia convicts TV presenter for critical show

Saudi Arabia convicts TV presenter for critical show

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the 12-year jail term handed to a TV presenter in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The journalist has 30 days to appeal. A court in the capital, Riyadh, convicted Wajdi al-Ghazzawi, host of Wajd TV satellite channel, of "harming the nation's image," according to the official Saudi Press Agency and regional human rights groups. The 12-year prison sentence...

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2 May 2011

Saudia Arabia imposes stricter controls on media

The Saudi government issued a decree on April 29 imposing new restrictions on the media and drastically limiting press freedom. The decree, which amends five articles of the 2000 press and publications law, is clearly designed to ensure that the protests sweeping the Arab world since the start of the year do not take any greater hold in Saudi Arabia than they have already. The decree bans...

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7 January 2011
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Saudi Arabia announces new Web publishing law

Saudi Arabia announces new Web publishing law

Online newspapers and blogs based in Saudi Arabia will now need to register with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information to operate. The new guidelines and rules will be added to the current publishing and printing law. Abdul Aziz Khaja, Minister of Information and Culture, stressed that the list is a tool of regulation – rather than restricting freedom of speech. He said it is in line with...

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13 December 2010
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After running leaked cables, websites face harassment in Middle East

After running leaked cables, websites face harassment in Middle East

The Lebanese news website Al-Akhbar is being harassed after it published US diplomatic cables that were first disclosed by WikiLeaks. The website was hacked last week by unknown attackers, while the Tunisian government blocked domestic access to the site. Saudi officials blocked access to the independent website Elaph, which also published some of the cables. "We condemn efforts to restrict news...

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10 December 2010
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Saudi journalist held for critical article on royal family

Saudi journalist held for critical article on royal family

New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Saudi authorities to immediately release Mohamed al-Abdulkarim, an Islamic law professor, human rights activist, and the editor-in-chief of an online magazine. He was arrested on Sunday, two weeks after an article he wrote was published online. Al-Abdulkarim wrote critically about the Saudi Arabian royal family...

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23 July 2010

Egyptian journalist in Riyadh attacked

An Egyptian journalist in Riyadh, who works as a correspondent of Kuwait's Al-Rai Arabic newspaper, was injured in a gun attack on Wednesday, according to arabnews.com. Subhi Rakha, the journalist, was attacked by a group of Saudi youths after he tried to settle a quarrel between them and an Egyptian with the help of others. The young men, after the quarrel had seemingly been settled, opened fire...

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15 April 2006

How to lose your job at a Saudi newspaper

I was unceremoniously fired this month by my Saudi newspaper, a leading English-language daily called Arab News. It didn't matter that I had been the senior columnist on the op-ed page for nine years or that my work was quoted widely in the European and American media, including this paper. What mattered was that I had committed one of the three cardinal sins an Arab journalist must avoid when...

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