West Asia - North Africa

Iranian authorities have arrested six more journalists and sentenced another on Sunday to eight years in prison, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. A revolutionary court in Tehran convicted Saeed Matin-Pour‎ of having "relations with foreigners and propagating against the regime," according to local news reports, and sent him immediately to Evin Prison. Matin-Pour‎ was...

With 30 journalists currently in prison, Iran has replaced China as the world's worst jailer of journalists. Research by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) shows that 24 detained in the aftermath of the elections remain in custody, in addition to six journalists who were in detention prior to the disputed elections. In the past few days three journalists have been freed

Adnan Hassanpour, a Kurdish journalist whose death sentence was quashed in August 2008, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison by the court in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj that retried his case, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has learnt from his family. The death sentence was passed on Hassanpour on July 16, 2007 by a revolutionary tribunal in Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdish northwestern region...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for reforms of the press law in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ensure press freedom. The call followed a judgment of the Federal High Court in Abu Dhabi, on June 29, which upheld the suspension of the Emarat Al Youm newspaper in a libel suit brought by race horses owners based in UAE. The judgment of the Federal High Court cannot be...

Twentyfour journalists remain jailed in Iran, according to the latest CPJ research, while the government has instituted a broad and intrusive censorship regime. The government prevented a total of five national newspapers from publishing on Wednesday, according to local news reports. At least three of the papers said that representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance had stopped...

Iranian authorities have released a number of employees of the reformist newspaper Kalemeh Sabz who had been held since June 23, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. In recent days, the Iranian government has launched a campaign designed to malign the foreign press, blaming demonstrations that followed the contested June 12 presidential elections on foreign news media...

As the US troops begin their withdrawal from Iraqi cities today, many questions remain about the persons still detained by the US forces. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for the release of Reuters photographer Ibrahim Jassam, who has been held since last September. “The US armed forces are now withdrawing from the main Iraqi cities after six years of occupation,” Paris...

A Moroccan court has imposed fines and damages on three independent dailies for "publicly harming" Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, above, and "injuring his dignity." The Ain Essaba'a Misdemeanour Court in Casablanca ordered each of the three newspapers— Al-Massae, the country's leading daily, Al-Jarida Al-Oula and Al-Ahdath Al-Magrebia—to pay a fine of 100,000 dirhams (US$12,484) and damages of one...

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expresses deep dissatisfaction over the increasing frequency of convictions for press misdemeanours in Egypt. The latest occurrence involved the criminal court sentencing of Yasser Barakat, editor-in-chief of the Al-Mogaz newspaper, to six months in prison and a fine of LE 20000 (approx. US$3500) in an insult and libel case filed by MP...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the decision to lift the ban on the Arabic version of the Gulf News newspaper after the authorities stopped its publication on Sunday June 21. "We welcome the lifting of the ban which was a serious violation of press freedom," said Paco Audije, IFJ Deputy General Secretary on June 23. "It is not for governments to tell newspapers what...