West Asia - North Africa

Tunisian authorities have pressed charges against against TV reporter Fahem Boukadous because of his coverage of this year’s protests in the Gafsa mining region, 350 km south of Tunis. This he did for the independent Tunisian TV station Al-Hiwar Attounsi, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Boukadous is also charged with putting foreign news media in contact with labour leaders in Gafsa...

A court in Iraqi Kurdistan Thursday rejected a one-month prison sentence and fine against journalist Shwan Dawdi. On November 4, a criminal court in Sulaymania found Dawdi, editor-in-chief of the Kirkuk-based Hawal newspaper, guilty of three defamation charges filed by retired judge Kemal Mustafa, the former director of the Sulaymania courthouse. Dawdi was jailed the same day and fined 300,000...

Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip for a week. The move is being seen as a serious violation of press freedom. According to media reports, military officials in Israel said only humanitarian aid workers and Palestinian patients are allowed to enter or leave Gaza as a result of the resumed shelling of rockets into Israel by Palestinians militants from Gaza. Israeli...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the release of Shawan Dawodi, the editor of the weekly Hawal, who was sentenced to a month in prison and a fine by a court in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah on November 4 over a series of articles four years ago criticising judicial reform in Iraqi Kurdistan. “There are no legal grounds for this arbitrary sentence as it is based on a law that has...

On the 21st anniversary of the coup that brought Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to power, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the longtime leader to end his government's repressive media tactics. Ben Ali, who seized power from Habib Bourguiba in a bloodless coup, has pursued some of the most restrictive press tactics in the Arab world, CPJ research shows. Through...

Moderate Iranian weekly Shahrvand Emrouz has been suspended at the behest of the country's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance after publishing four issues in a row with portraits of politicians seen as potential presidential candidates, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. In a separate development, an online journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison on a national...

Press freedom groups have condemned the continued imprisonment of Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman, a.k.a. Kareem Amer, who completed two years in prison on Friday. His lawyers from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and Hisham Mubarak Law Centre are still waiting the result of an appeal brought before Egypt’s Prosecutor-General. Amer’s lawyers hope to see justice done...

The Iraqi Kurdistan court of appeals should act immediately to overturn a judge's ruling on Tuesday to impose a one-month prison term against a journalist who published critical reports about the Sulaymania courthouse, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded. The journalist's lawyer said newly adopted legislation does not appear to allow such a prison sentence. The Criminal Court...

Algerian newspaper El Khabar has topped Arab newspapers in distribution rates. The newspaper's distribution estimations exceeded 600.000 copies a day, despite its short life (the paper has only been published for eighteen years), and the huge number of lawsuits which have been aimed at its editors and reporters over the years, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has said. The...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged the state security court to withdraw its case against Fayez al-Ajrashi, editor-in-chief of privately-owned weekly El-Ekhbariya. Al-Ajrashi, who was released from Al-Juweida prison (15 km south of Amman) on November 2 after paying 3,000 dinars (approx 3,300 euros) in bail. Al-Ajrashi is still facing charges of "inflaming sectarian strife" and "sowing...