West Asia - North Africa

Authorities in Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Syria have prevented four Arab journalists and human rights activists from attending the Arab Free Press Forum, an annual gathering in Beirut, Lebanon, that examines how independent media can be effective despite widespread repression in the region. The travel restrictions drew condemnation from the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), the organiser of...

Kurdish physician and freelance journalist Adel Hussein has been released from prison in Erbil (330 km north of Baghdad) under a pardon granted by the president of the Iraqi region of Kurdistan at the start of every religious festival, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Hussein had been in prison since November 24, when he was found guilty of offending public decency under article 403...

Hamas security forces have freed three Palestinian journalists who they had arrested last month and accused of fabricating news critical of the Islamist group, agency Reuters has reported. The journalists, freed on December 3, worked in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for the Palestine Press, a local news agency with ties to the group's main rival, President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. The...

Israel has lifted a four-week ban on international journalists entering Gaza and temporarily eased a blockade on shipments of goods to the coastal strip, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The announcement follows weeks of pressure from foreign governments and the leaders of major news organisations urging Israel to reopen Gaza to the media. Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said on...

Rachid Nini, publisher of Al-Massae newspaper, has been fined another 600,000 dirhams (54,000 euros) by a Casablanca court for allegedly libelling a prominent lawyer. The fine, imposed on December 1, may force Morocco’s leading Arabic-language daily to close down. Al-Massae had already said it would probably have to shut down after an appeal court ruling on October 30 confirming that it would have...

A freelance journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison in the Kurdish city of Erbil for writing an article about health and sex for independent weekly Hawlati. Adel Hussein, a doctor and a freelance journalist, was found guilty of violating "public custom" on November 24 by a court in Erbil for publishing an article in April 2007 in Hawlati about health and sex, Tariq Fatih, the weekly...

Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief of Al Dustour, the daily newspaper in Egypt, has been awarded the 2008 Gebran Tueni Award, the annual prize of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) that honours an editor or publisher in the Arab region. The prize, which is made in memory of Gebran Tueni, the Lebanese publisher and WAN Board Member who was killed by a car bomb in Beirut in December 2005...

Iran has lifted a ban on a film magazine which was ordered to halt publication in March for printing "decadent and corrupt" articles on foreign film stars, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting Fars news agency. Branch 27 of Tehran's public court has lifted the ban on Donya-ye Tasvir (World of the Image), Fars said. The AFP report said: [ Link] "We now hope to publish the new issue of...

An Iraqi court on Sunday ordered the release of a freelance photographer working for Reuters after being held by US forces since early September, the news agency has reported. The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled there was no evidence against Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, and ordered that the US military release him from Camp Cropper prison near Baghdad airport. Iraqi prosecutors acknowledged in...

A team of journalists working for US media company National Public Radio had a narrow escape from a car bombing in Baghdad after Iraqi soldiers warned them that a device had been attached to the bottom of their armoured car. The bomb exploded about 15 feet from the NPR journalists. It destroyed the car but nobody was injured. Ivan Watson, a 33 year-old reporter for NPR on temporary assignment in...