West Asia - North Africa

Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has filed a criminal defamation suit against independent journalist Hamdi Kandil, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). He faces up to six months in jail and a discretionary fine if convicted. A prosecutor summoned Kandil on Tuesday to inform him of defamation charges brought in connection with a May 3 article in the opposition...

The Bahraini government has decided to indefinitely suspend Al-Jazeera from reporting from the Gulf kingdom, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Tuesday, Bahrain’s Ministry of Culture and Information decided to “temporarily freeze the activities of the Bahrain bureau of the Qatari satellite news channel Al-Jazeera for having violated professional norms and for failing to...

Kuwaiti authorities have detained freelance opposition journalist Mohammed Abdulqader al-Jassem since Sunday on charges of “instigating to overthrow the regime,” “slight to the personage of the emir” and “instigating to dismantle the foundations of Kuwaiti society,” the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Al-Jassem is facing multiple charges in five other complaints and was...

The Sudanese government has shut down opposition daily Rai al-Shaab and arrested three of its journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Security forces raided Rai al-Shaab’s offices in Khartoum on Sunday morning, confiscating copies and equipment and stopping all printing, according to local and international news reports. Deputy Editor Abu Zar al-Amin and two reporters...

On May 2, the Press and Publications Court in Sana’a found Hussein Muhammad al-Leswas, editor of the news website Sana Press, guilty of “undermining national foundations, the revolution, and the republic” and sentenced him to one year in prison, according to local press reports and freelance journalist Samia al-Aghraby. The court also instituted an open-ended reporting ban against al-Leswas...

Two journalists have been freed in Yemen during the past 24 hours. Al-Ayyam editor Hani Bashraheel, who was arrested on January 6, and Moaz Ashhabi, who was sentenced to a year in prison on January 16, were freed on Monday, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). But a harsh crackdown on independent and opposition media continues, with another journalist, Hossein Al-Leswas, getting a one...

The climate continues to be very oppressive for Palestinian journalists, who are still subject to arrests, physical attacks and searches as a result of tension between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). In one of the latest incidents, Samer Rwayched, a correspondent of Sawt Al-Aqsa (a radio station linked...

The prosecutor-general in Kuwait has forbidden the Kuwaiti media to publish any more reports about the dismantling of an Iranian spy network, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The disbanding of the network, allegedly consisting of six Kuwaitis, two stateless Arabs employed by the army and various Arab citizens, was revealed by a media report on May 1. The spy ring dismantled by the...

A 13-year prison sentence was handed down to Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari in absentia on Sunday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Newsweek correspondent Bahari, who was held in detention for four months on manufactured anti-state charges in 2009, was sentenced by a Tehran Revolutionary Court on Sunday to 13 years in prison, in addition to 74 lashes. Bahari...

A reporter for independent news outlets was found shot to death Thursday morning in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul after being abducted Wednesday in Arbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to news reports. Authorities in both cities must conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of Sardasht Osman and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said...