West Asia - North Africa

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas government in the Gaza strip to release Palestinian journalists who have been arbitrarily detained by their respective security forces. "We condemn this latest crackdown against journalists in Palestine," said Paco Audije, IFJ Deputy General Secretary. "Our colleagues must not...

Press freedom groups have urged Iranian authorities to release all of the roughly 40 journalists and media workers who have been detained in the aftermath of the country's disputed June 12 presidential election. Iranian news organisations identified two more detained journalists in reports on Thursday. Multiple news reports named the two as cartoonist Behzad Bashbo and television producer Khalil...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to end censorship of independent newspapers and to identify and prosecute those who assaulted Al-Jazeera journalists on two occasions in the south of the country. Yemen's popular daily, Al-Ayyam, the weeklies Al-Nida and Al-Watani, as well as five other independent newspapers, were banned...

Press freedom campaigner Robert Ménard has resigned as director-general of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, which he had headed since April 2008. Ménard stepped down on June 19 because the Qatari authorities wanted to restrict what Centre said. Other members of the staff have also resigned. “For several months we were an independent voice that condemned violations and had only one concern – the...

A crackdown against journalists and cyber-dissidents is continuing in Iran with both Iranian and foreign journalists caught in the eye of the post-election storm, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. Among the latest arrests was that of a correspondent for the US magazine Newsweek, Maziar Bahari, picked up at his home in Tehran on June 21. “The authorities are using all possible methods to...

Iranian security agents arrested about 25 employees of Kalameh Sabz, the reformist newspaper owned by presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, after raiding the paper's offices on Monday evening, according to local and international news reports. Alireza Beheshti, the paper's editor-in-chief, told the Farsi-language service of Deutsche-Welle that the agents, in plain clothes but armed, rounded...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Iranian authorities to release all journalists detained in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election and to lift the onerous press restrictions that are choking information at a time when the country and the world most need it. At least 13 journalists detained during a week of protests were still in government custody as of late Monday...

The Islamic Republic of Iran now ranks alongside China as the world’s biggest prison for journalists, according to Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) . The crackdown has been intensified yet again following Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s endorsement of the result of the June 12 presidential election and the opposition’s decision to call another demonstration on June 20. Iran now has a...

In his first public address to the nation since demonstrations erupted in many cities across Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday blamed foreign media, calling it "evil" for attempting to divide the people of Iran. Iranian authorities continue to crack down on journalists in an attempt to control information as demonstrations continue to grip the country following last Friday's...

Iranian authorities are continuing a crackdown on journalists and information that began after the announcement of the disputed presidential election results. Journalists are still being arrested and more censorship measures have been adopted as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s allies try to suppress media coverage of fraud allegations. “Independent sources of news and information find it very hard...