West Asia - North Africa

Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday questioned the editor of a prominent independent newspaper about his paper's recent reports on the health of the country's 79-year-old leader, President Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim Eissa and one of his journalists, Sahar Zaki, were sentenced on June 29, 2006 to a year in prison and a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (1,450 euros) on charges of libelling the president...

Hamas has decided to stop dealing with the Palestine Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) and has gone to the extent saying that it would be dissolving the journalists union, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has reported. Journalists are increasingly under pressure in the region as the rivalry of Hamas and the Fatah faction in Palestinian politics has led to the growing separation of Gaza...

BAGHDAD: A cameraman for the independent satellite channel Al-Mousaliya was killed by unknown gunmen Monday in an ambush in the northern city of Mosul, police said. Amir Malallah al-Rashidi was killed in the ambush at 8 p.m. in an eastern part of the city by gunmen in two cars, said Police Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri. The 38-year-old had worked for the state-run Iraqiya television before...

A Tunis criminal court has dismissed a libel case against the editor of an online newspaper after the plaintiff decided to withdraw his complaint, delayed reports have said. Charges of defamation had been leveled against Omar Mestiri, the editor of the online newspaper Kalima, by Tunisian lawyer Mohammed Baccar that could have led to his imprisonment for up to three years. The suit was a result of...

The editor of an independent Egyptian daily is to face prosecution over his paper's coverage of the state of President Hosni Mubarak's health. Recent speculation about the 79-year-old Mubarak has included his hospitalisation, travel abroad for medical treatment and even death, prompting him to make an unannounced visit to an industrial zone near his summer home on the Mediterranean coast in a bid...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - People ask if it is tough being a journalist in Iraq. For me the hardest job is being a mother. The daily fear for my son overwhelmed me last year when a car bomb exploded near our home during the fasting month of Ramadan. My son Hani, who was six at the time, had just finished playing soccer with his friends in the street. He came inside, sweaty and cheerful, washed his face...

The death of an Iraqi translator and interpreter employed by the US television network CBS News brings the number of journalists and media workers killed in Iraq since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003 to 200, according to Reporters sans frontières (RSF). RSF voiced dismay on learning of the murder of Anwar Abbas Lafta, a translator and interpreter employed by CBS News. Lafta’s body...

Hamas is planning to enforce a 12-year-old Palestinian press law designed to silence dissident journalists amid a crackdown that has raised fierce protests from the local media. "We are all bound by this 1995 press law, and its articles carry the force of the law," said a statement from what was described as Hamas's "information ministry" in the Gaza Strip, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP)...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A translator for CBS News in Iraq has been found dead after being abducted from his home by eight to 10 armed men a week ago, CBS said on Monday. Anwar Abbas Lafta, an Iraqi who had worked for CBS News for 10 months, was abducted on the evening of August 20 by men who entered his home, fought with him and his brother and shot his sister in the arm, CBS said in a statement. His...

Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the constant harassment of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas paramilitary Executive Force. The press freedom organisation is also concerned about the Islamist party’s intention to enforce a press law dating back to 1995 that will enable it to control the media even more closely. “The situation of journalists in the Gaza Strip has got...