West Asia - North Africa

Spanish investigating judge Santiago Pedraz has decided to reinstate murder charges against the three US soldiers responsible for shelling the Hotel Palestine in Baghdad on April 8, 2003, killing two cameramen, one of them the Spanish. The order came on Thursday. Spain’s National Court had ordered the withdrawal of the charges for lack of evidence in May 2008. José Couso, a Spanish cameraman...

An increasing number of lawsuits are being filed in Algeria against journalists for alleged defamation, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has eported. On May 11, Nedjar El Hadj Daoud, editor of the Al-Waha newspaper, was sentenced to six months in prison by the Ghardaïa court, confirming the 2007 and 2008 rulings. The sentence stemmed from the publication of a May 21, 2006 article...

Writer and journalist Michel Kilo, who was released from Adra prison in Damascus at midnight on May 14 on completing a three-year sentence, was immediately taken to the Damascus headquarters of the intelligence services and has been held there ever since, undergoing interrogation, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. His family has told Paris-based RSF its concern is compounded by the...

Pro-reform Iranian daily Yas-e-no was closed down on May 16, immediately after it brought out its first issue in five years, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The mouthpiece of the Participation Front, the main opposition party, it was closed on the orders of the Commission for Press Authorisation and Surveillance (an offshoot of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance...

Court proceedings have been initiated against five Moroccan journalists charged with "publicly harming" Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, left, and "hurting his dignity." The brief court hearing Monday, attended by a Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) representative, was adjourned until June 1 at the request of the journalists' lawyers, who learnt that the case was filed by the public prosecutor...

Yemeni security forces raided the Aden compound of the country's most popular independent newspaper on May 13, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. One passerby was killed. Just before noon, a group of security forces clashed with guards at the offices of Al-Ayyam, firing teargas and bullets and wounding at least two guards and killing the passerby, according to local and...

Iraqi trade minister Abdelfalah Al-Soudani’s has decided to withdraw the lawsuits he had brought against two independent daily newspapers, Al-Mashriq and Al-Parlament, over articles linking him directly to cases of alleged corruption. The minister had been demanding 150 million dinars (95,000 euros) in damages from Al-Mashriq and 50 million dinars (31,500 euros) from Al-Parlament. The move was...

Israeli newspaper reporter Amira Hass was arrested at the Erez border crossing Tuesay as she returned to Israel after spending four months in the Gaza Strip reporting for the Tel Aviv-based daily Haaretz in violation of a military ban on Israeli citizens visiting the Palestinian Territories, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Hass told RSF that the Israeli police arrested...

Tunisian government efforts to force out the president of a critical journalists union is part of a campaign to eliminate independent media in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday. The campaign started on May 4 when a group of pro-government journalists and followers of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali prevented National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (NSTJ)...

Yemeni authorities have launched a campaign to suppress independent journalism in the country, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Authorities have announced a special court to try media and publishing offences. One of the latest victims of the media crackdown launched nearly two weeks ago is Yahya Bamahfud, a blogger and former editor of the Hadhramaut news...