Middle East Aggregator

The Fars news agency, one of Iran's most prominent media organizations and normally considered close to the government, resumed operations Thursday after a three-day ban for reporting "false news." The government shut down Fars on Monday, apparently for publishing a story saying that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had replaced the central bank chief with the first vice president, one of his closest allies. The news agency, which resumed sending stories around midday (0730 GMT) Thursday, however indicated there may have been other reasons. "Until now the 'real' reason behind the ban is still unknown to Fars," it said in a report.

The contested report, quoting unnamed sources, had said Iran's central bank governor Tahmasb Mazaheri was stepping down and being replaced by Vice President Parviz Davoudi. Fars later published a denial of its report. The central bank chief's future has been the center of intense press speculation since Mazaheri and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are reported to be at odds over Iran's monetary policy with inflation close to 25 percent. Fars, which is known for its security contacts and regularly publishes interviews with top military commanders, is normally considered supportive of Ahmadinejad's government. It is a relatively recent creation, founded in 2002, but rapidly became one of the most significant news organizations in Iran with a wide domestic network. The identity of its political and financial backers is not known. The Iranian media scene, which contains a myriad of newspapers, Internet news sites and news agencies of all political colors, has been hit by a string of closures under Ahmadinejad. (AFP)

Labels: Free Media, Iran

Iran on Monday ordered the Fars news agency, one of the country's most prominent news organizations and normally considered close to the government, to close for three days for publishing "false news." "We have received a letter from the commission for surveillance of non-governmental press agencies ordering us to halt our operations for three days," Fars editor in chief Abbas Tavangar told AFP.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Fars had been "suspended for publishing false news and disturbing the public order."

No further details were given but Fars had on Sunday published a report saying that the governor of Iran's central bank, Tahmasb Mazaheri, was stepping down and being replaced by Vice President Parviz Davoudi. It later issued another report denying the story.

Mazaheri and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are reported to be at loggerheads over Iran's monetary policy amid inflation rates of close to 25 percent. The central bank chief's future has been the center of intense press speculation.

The conservative news Web site Borna said the story about Mazaheri was the reason for the temporary closure.

Tavangar said Fars would halt operations for three days with immediate effect. The last story on its news wire was at 11:30 a.m. (0700 GMT) Monday. (AFP)

Labels: Free Media, Free Speech, Iran

An Afghan editor and supporter of women's rights in Islam has been freed after 86 days in detention in Iran, but is not allowed to leave the country, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Friday. Intelligence agents picked up Ali Muhaqiq Nasab from his home in the town of Qumm, about 150 kilometers from Tehran, on March 4 on unspecified charges. He was released on Thursday, the media group said in a statement. Nasab told RSF that he had been accused of "suspicious relations with foreign embassies," it said. However his interrogation at an Intelligence Ministry prison was mainly about his journalistic activities and articles published in his magazine Haqoq-e-Zan (Women's Rights), the statement cited him as saying. "He has been released conditionally and is not allowed to leave the country. We urge the authorities to drop the charges against him," the media rights group said. Nasab was in jail for 86 days, 81 of which were in solitary confinement, it said. He had gone to Iran after being freed from jail in Afghanistan, where he was arrested in October 2005 for blasphemy after publishing articles that questioned harsh penalties for adultery and conversion to another religion. He was sentenced to two years in jail but freed on appeal almost three months later, although he was forced to close down his magazine. (AFP)

Labels: Afghanistan, Free Media, Free Speech, Iran

Qatar's prime minister has won three libel suits against a Kuwaiti daily and the paper's columnist over a series of editorials criticizing his open policy toward Israel.
Sheik Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar's foreign minister, is known for developing contacts with Israel and seeking a more prominent regional role for Qatar.
His lawyer, Hussein al-Gharib, says a Kuwaiti civil court found Al-Watan daily and columnist Fouad al-Hashem guilty of damaging Hamad's reputation. The court ordered them on Monday to pay a total of 9,001 dinars (U.S. $34,094) in damages to the premier.

Al-Hashem says he respects the ruling but won't stop criticizing the top
Qatari official.
The columns by al-Hashem criticized Sheik Hamad for his ties to Israel, including claims he is financing the development of an Israeli diabetes drug.
Qatar is home to Israel's only diplomatic mission in the Gulf, a trade mission. In January 2007, then Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres visited Qatar and met with its ruler. (Haaretz)

Labels: Free Media, Free Speech, Israel, Qatar

A global media watchdog appealed on Monday for the safety of Arab journalists covering wars in the Middle East and northeast Africa, where almost half of all reporters killed in 2007 died. "We must ensure the safety of journalists in these areas," the president of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Jim Boumelha, said at a trade unions meeting in Casablanca. He condemned the killing of 76 journalists in war-stricken Iraq, Palestine and Somalia alone last year. Naim Tabassi, a Palestinian representative, complained that "the lives of local and foreign journalists covering events in Gaza ... are threatened daily by the Israeli occupiers." Mounia Belafia, a Moroccan unionist, said it was crucial for female journalists - who make up only 30 percent of all journalists in the country - to fight for higher wages and more senior posts. The IFJ also pressed for media reforms in the Arab world, clemency on press crimes and more support for an independent press.  (AFP)

Labels: Free Media

BAGHDAD: A media rights group has called for a full probe into a 2003 US shelling that killed two foreign journalists at a Baghdad hotel, arguing that new evidence showed the incident was not an accident. In a statement, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said the US should "tell the whole truth" about the incident at the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, just a day before Baghdad fell to invading US forces.

The IFJ said a former US Army sergeant had reported seeing secret US documents that listed the hotel as a possible target, which it said "exposed as a cover-up" the US position that the shelling was an accident. 

"Slowly the awful truth about the events of that day are emerging," Aidan White, general secretary of the Brussels-based IFJ, said in the statement. "This latest information adds to our concern that the failure to properly investigate and report on this attack is covering up the reality that the US was recklessly putting media lives at risk." 

Spanish cameraman Jose Couso, who worked for the private television station Telecinco, and Ukraine-born Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, were killed at the hotel, which was home to about 150 journalists and media staff at the time. (AFP)

Labels: Free Media, Iraq, U.S.

The English-language offshoot of Al Jazeera, the Arabic television news network, is pushing for a “breakthrough” that would make the channel available to American TV viewers and help it move beyond a turbulent start-up phase, according to its new managing director, Tony Burman.

Tony Burman was named managing director of Al Jazeera English last week.

The hiring of Mr. Burman, a former editor in chief of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian public broadcaster, was announced last week.

Al Jazeera English’s first year and a half has been marked by intense scrutiny of its coverage and by the recent defection of several high-profile Western journalists who had been recruited to lend credibility to the channel.

Al Jazeera English, which is part of the Al Jazeera Network, based in Qatar, also announced distribution agreements last week in markets as far-flung as Portugal, Ukraine and Vietnam, increasing its potential audience to 110 million homes. Conspicuously absent, however, was the United States, where Al Jazeera is still largely unavailable on television. Viewers can watch it on the Web through a deal with YouTube, the online video service.

In the United States, a market of 300 million people and hundreds of pay-television services, “the idea that certain channels would effectively be banned is medieval,” Mr. Burman said. (NY Times)

Labels: Free Media, Qatar, U.S.

A month after journalist Fadel Shana was killed by an Israel Defense Forces tank crew in the Gaza Strip, Reuters renewed its demand on Thursday for a prompt explanation from the Israeli army of why it fired on its cameraman.
Shana, a 24-year-old Palestinian, was killed on April 16 along with eight mostly teenage bystanders by darts known as flechettes that burst out of a tank shell in mid-air. Shana had been filming about 1.5 km (a mile) from two Israeli tanks.
The IDF army said it had completed an initial field investigation that had determined the soldiers had followed orders and acted appropriately. But military lawyers still had to study the case before the army could give a full account.

"A month has passed since Fadel Shana was killed by Israeli forces while responsibly going about his professional duties," said Reuters Middle East Managing Editor Mark Thompson.
"We urge the IDF to release its report on the incident now so that media organizations and the military can cooperate on ways to ensure journalists can continue to cover this conflict." (Haaretz)

Labels: Free Media, Israel, Palestine

One of the most disturbing aspects of the violence that broke out in Beirut last week was the targeting of media outlets. The extent to which freedom of the press is respected in Lebanon is one of the most important features distinguishing this country from less fortunate peers across the Middle East. Any failure to cherish and protect this characteristic is therefore a failure to preserve the principles of tolerance which alone can help make Lebanon's diversity a strength rather than a weakness.

Representatives of all sides have acknowledged the dangerous implications of these incidents, but what is required is for all spokespeople for every side to do so. Lebanon's media environment is far from perfect, consisting primarily as it does of broadcasters, publications and websites aligned with individual political parties or alliances thereof. This has the unfortunate effect of blurring the lines between news and propaganda, and therefore those between observer and participant. This is precisely why all Lebanese media need to condemn what happened, but also to re-examine how we perform our functions. It would be unrealistic to expect fully objective information from providers that are owned outright by (or heavily indebted to) one political force or another, but it is not too much to ask that they refrain from exacerbating the inflammatory rhetoric of their respective masters. (Daily Star)

Labels: Free Media, Lebanon

Ninety-three journalists were killed in 2007, almost half of them in Iraq, the International Press Institute media watchdog said in its annual press freedom review published Thursday. The figure was the second highest in a decade after 2006, which saw 100 journalists' deaths, according to IPI figures. Forty-two journalists died in Iraq during 2007, while Asia was the second deadliest region, with 19 reporters killed, mostly in Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, the IPI said in a statement. It also noted "the first targeted assassination of a journalist since 1993" in the United States, with the killing of a newspaper editor in Oakland, California. IPI director David Dadge added that the murder by a Turkish nationalist of renowned journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul in January 2007 "reinforces ... the bravery of journalists everywhere who challenge censorship." Restrictions on press freedom were still widespread in Africa and the Middle East, the watchdog said, citing especially Iran and Zimbabwe, where hard-to-obtain licenses are required to work as a journalist. (AFP)

Labels: Free Media, Iraq

An Egyptian television agency boss was charged by a Cairo court on Monday over helping to broadcast images of protesters tearing down portraits of President Hosni Mubarak during deadly food riots in April. Nader Gohar, who owns the Cairo News Co., was charged with not having a license to provide satellite feed facilities to foreign channels following a complaint by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, a judicial official told AFP.

Gohar, who is currently in Paris, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Three civilians were killed by police during two days of rioting in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla on April 6-7. Demonstrations against rising food prices turned violent when police used rubber-coated bullets and tear-gas on protesters. Footage of the posters being torn down - a crime against under Egyptian law - and the subsequent violence was seen on many TV stations and on the Internet.

The court, which ordered Gohar's arrest ahead of the next hearing on May 26, has already ordered the agency's offices searched and impounded five satellite dishes and a vehicle. (AFP)

Labels: Egypt, Free Media

A celebration has been held in Sudan after the release of Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, from Guantanamo Bay, with hundreds of well-wishers in attendance.

Civil society groups and the Al Jazeera television network organised the gathering in the capital, Khartoum, on Monday to mark his freedom.

He addressed the rally and said that his US captors had hoped to turn him into a spy.

"I was subjugated to more than 130 interrogations, 95 of them were about my work and Al Jazeera," he told the crowd, which included Wadah Khanfar, the network's director general.

"They wanted me to betray the principles of my job and to turn me into a spy.

"It was made clear to me later the main goal behind my detention was to detain the journalist who reveals the truth. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: Free Media, Guantanamo, Sudan, U.S.

A Yemeni court Saturday overturned a government decision to shut down an independent weekly newspaper, the official Saba news agency said. The court in Sanaa said Al-Wassat newspaper could resume publication, reversing the closure order handed down by the Information Ministry. Publication of Al-Wassat had been suspended for the past month. The court also ordered the ministry to pay the newspaper's legal costs and banned it from withdrawing operating licenses for other Yemeni publications, Saba reported. The ministry said it had based its decision to close the newspaper over its failure to adhere to administrative procedures, including the listing of its editorial staff and failure to provide notice of the relocation of its offices. (AFP)

Labels: Free Media, Free Speech, Judiciary, Yemen

Gunmen shot dead an Iraqi reporter on Sunday after hauling her out of a taxi in Mosul, a notoriously violent city in northern Iraq where journalists are often targeted and live in fear of their lives.

Police said Serwa Abdul-Wahab, in her mid-30s, was on her way to work when gunmen forced her out of the taxi in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, and shot her once in the head.

A colleague said she had received a text message on her phone three weeks earlier warning her to stop reporting or she would be killed.

There were conflicting reports about who she worked for and police were not immediately able to say why anyone would want to target her. Police and fellow journalists agreed that she was a contributor to www.muraslon.org, an Iraqi news website.

Iraq, which witnessed significant growth in the media after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to work, according to New York-based journalism watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). (Reuters)

Labels: Free Media, Iraq

A fresh deadline seeking compliance with a ban on the five Indian TV serials being broadcast by private Afghan TV channels was due to end on Tuesday. The ban, ordered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, has caused public controversy and a strident clash between conservatives and liberals. The truth is more multi-layered: not all those who oppose the serials are doing so out of conservative values, nor are the reasons for their defense uniformly liberal.
The serials are considered by critics to have content considered "too modern" for Afghan audiences. Meanwhile, the so-called values the shows portray are viewed as regressive, even backward, in India. By positing this case as a simple test of media freedom, there is a danger of losing sight of the complexities that need to be addressed to strengthen the independence of the Afghan media.

The debate over the ban has been described in private national media and the international press as "the latest battle of the long-simmering war between cultural conservatives and liberals", as one reputed newspaper called it. The reality is somewhat more complex. While conservatives, including some of the religious ulema, have been consistently pressuring the government and TV channels to curtail any content that goes beyond their interpretation of Afghanistan's conservative social mores, in this instance the demand for curtailing the soap operas has more widespread support. The reasons for this are two-fold. (Asia Times)

Labels: Afghanistan, Free Media, India

ONE of the Middle East’s wealthiest ruling families has a new asset: The National, a newspaper that promises independence from its royal owners.

Martin Newland, editor of The National newspaper, addresses the newsroom. Abu Dhabi is promising a newspaper comparable to the Wall Street Journal when the emirate's new English-language daily hits the streets.

The paper, an English-language daily based in Abu Dhabi, published its first issue on April 17, under close scrutiny in the Middle East and abroad. With its pledge to emulate Western newspaper standards and to “help society evolve,” The National is an anomaly in the Middle East, where most media are tightly controlled by the government.

“We aim to produce an excellent newspaper out of the region” that will set a new standard for other publications to aspire to, said Hassan M. Fattah, the deputy editor, who was a correspondent for The New York Times in the Middle East before joining The National. “Being government-owned does not equal being government-run,” he said. “There are no ministers sitting in my office” telling the paper what to write. (NY Times)

Labels: Free Media, U.A.E.

Every evening, Roya Amin sits down with her husband and 2-year-old daughter in front of the television. When their favorite Indian soap opera starts, they sigh in relief.

The Afghan government is trying to ban the wildly popular television dramas for being un-Islamic and interfering with children's studies. It's a sign of the growing tensions between religious conservatives and liberals in Afghanistan's post-Taliban era.

Many Afghans are deeply conservative but they are also drawn to the Indian television dramas, a salve that helps them forget decades of war and the ongoing violence and woes in their country. Amin, 23, said she is addicted to three different soaps. (AP)

Labels: Afghanistan, Free Media

The U.S. military said Monday it will release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, more than two years after he was detained by U.S. Marines on suspicions of links to insurgents. The military said it has determined Hussein is not a threat and plans to free him Wednesday.

In the past week, Iraqi judicial committees dismissed all allegations against Hussein and ordered his release. The last allegations were dropped Sunday - a day after Hussein marked his second full year in custody.

The AP and Hussein, 36, have denied any improper contacts and said he was only doing his job as a journalist working in a war zone.

AP President Tom Curley expressed relief.

"In time we will celebrate Bilal's release. For now, we want him safe and united with his family. While we may never see eye to eye with the U.S. military over this case, it is time for all of us to move on," said Curley. (AP)

Labels: Free Media, Iraq, U.S.

The seven RAM FM employees arrested by police Monday for operating a studio in Jerusalem without a license and released after appearing in Jerusalem's Magistrate Court on Tuesday, remain under a week-long house arrest and gag order.

The English-language radio station plays Western music and aims to create dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

"The reality is that if we were an illegal radio station, we wouldn't have invested $2 million in it," RAM FM employee Raf Gangat said on Wednesday. "We're talking to our lawyers about the legality of the closing, and we'll have to see what happens."

Communication Ministry Spokesman Yechiel Shavi told The Jerusalem Post there was nothing irregular about the closing or the arrests. (JPost)

Labels: Free Media, Free Speech, Israel, Palestine

Egypt ordered the confiscation of a special edition of the German magazine Der Spiegel about Islam on Tuesday that the government says insults the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, Egypt's state news agency MENA said.

Information Minister Anas el-Feki said the decision "comes in the context of defending Islamic values and standing firmly against those who try to insult the prophet, the Islamic faith, and religions generally," MENA reported.

"We are for freedom of the press, but we cannot permit religions to be insulted," MENA quoted Feki as saying.

It said that Feki had ordered copies of the March 25 special edition confiscated because it contained "a number of images and phrases insulting the prophet, peace be upon him".

MENA said that the edition, whose cover it said bore the headline "Allah in the West", included paragraphs quoting a "German orientalist" as saying that Islam called for violence and terrorism.

MENA said that the magazine had also characterized Islam as a Christian sect. (Reuters)

Labels: Egypt, Free Media

A leading media watchdog has condemned the jail sentence handed down to a newspaper editor by an Egyptian court over articles alluding to the allegedly failing health of the country's aging president, Hosni Mubarak. In a statement released late Wednesday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the verdict against Ibrahim Eissa, editor of Ad-Dustour daily, was pronounced after a hearing that lasted just 10 minutes.

The Boulak Abul Ela Court of Misdemeanor, on the outskirts of Cairo, sentenced Eissa to six months in prison for "publishing false information and rumors" about Mubarak's health. The court said the articles were likely to disturb public security and harm the country's economy. Eissa was freed on 200 Egyptian pounds ($37) bail, and his lawyers said they would appeal what they called a politically motivated verdict.

"By sentencing our colleague to prison, Egyptian authorities have once again shown their determination to clamp down on critics in the press through the pernicious use of the courts," said CPJ executive director Joel Simon. "The appeals court should throw out this politically motivated judgment."  (Daily Star)

Labels: Egypt, Free Media, Free Speech

An outspoken Egyptian tabloid news editor has been sentenced to six months in prison for reporting on the president's health problems, causing panic among foreign investors and threatening Egypt's economy in a highly publicized case, a court official said Wednesday.

Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the daily Al-Dustour, will post the 200 Egyptian pounds bail (US$40) to avoid serving his sentence while he appeals, added the official speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't not authorized to speak to the media.

"The state has been put at risk," Judge Sherif Mustafa also said while reading out the court verdict details. "He reported false news about the president's health which he knew were fabricated."

The judge added that the articles had threatened the economy.

"Investors withdrew their investment from the country and the stock market collapsed, costing the economy some US$350 million," he said. (JPost)

Labels: Egypt, Free Media, Free Speech

More than 300,000 people voted in the final of Afghanistan's version of Pop Idol and hundreds more crowded into a hotel in Kabul yesterday, shrugging off angry religious protests.

Music fans from across the country voted by text message as two male finalists battled it out on stage, just a few hundred yards from a massive demonstration by Muslim extremists.

Hundreds of young Afghans queued for hours to see the final held at the Intercontinental Hotel, which was once a favourite stomping ground of the Taliban. The building was protected by armed police with machine guns mounted on pick-up trucks, while just beyond the gate crowds waved placards protesting against European cartoons and a film which they say insults Islam. (Link)

Labels: Afghanistan, Free Media

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern over the religious edict issued last week by a Saudi cleric who called for the trial and death of two writers for their "heretical articles" and their death if they do not repent. Sheikh Abdel-Rahman al-Barrak's fatwa came in response to recent articles in Al-Riyadh newspaper by two reform-minded writers who challenged a common Sunni view in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths are unbelievers. "Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam and should be tried in order to take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam," Sheikh Barrak was quoted by Reuters as saying in his March 14 edict. "We are extremely worried about the safety of our colleagues and ask the Saudi government to ensure their safety," CPJ executive director Joel Simon said in a statement. "It is ironic that writers advocating tolerance and reform are subject to incitement and death threats." "Religious edicts by radical Islamic clerics or groups led to the assassination in 1992 of Egyptian writer Farag Foda and to a serious attempt in 1994 in Cairo to murder Egyptian Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz," the statement noted. (Link)

Labels: Free Media, Free Speech, Saudi Arabia

Osama bin Laden has threatened the European Union with grave punishment over "insulting drawings" of the Prophet Muhammad as the Muslim world marked the prophet's birthday.

He says in an audio internet posting that the "wise men" of the European Union had gone "overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings. This is the greatest misfortune and the most dangerous". (Link)

Labels: Al Qaeda, European Union, Free Media, Free Speech, Islam

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will feature testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.

The four-day event will bring together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, there will be panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists to give context to the testimony. These panels will cover everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans' health benefits and support.

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The event is now over, new videos of testimonies are being published on their web site each day. It was given no attention in the main stream media and only picked up by the Washington Post, which buried it in its Metro (local) edition. (Link to Winter Soldier)

Democracy Now has also had several days dedicated to full coverage of the event. (Link)

One testimony - Heart Viges

 

Sgt. Jason Lemieux gives Testimony on Rules of Engagement: (Link)

Labels: Afghanistan, Free Media, Free Speech, Iraq, U.S.

A group of Saudi clerics has come out in support of a colleague who issued a fatwa saying two writers deserve to die if they did not retract views that he said made them apostates.

Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, one of the kingdom's most revered clerics, said in a rare fatwa last week the columnists should be tried for apostasy for "heretical articles" published in al-Riyadh newspaper and put to death if they do not repent.

They questioned the Sunni Muslim view in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers, which Barrak said implied Muslims were free to follow other religions and their faith was on a par with other religions.

A group of 20 clerics, all associated with Barrak, issued a statement on Tuesday asking God to support him in the face of a "wicked attack" by liberals with "polluted beliefs". (Link)

Labels: Free Media, Free Speech, Saudi Arabia

The US army has banned the publication of four cartoons drawn by Sami al-Hajj, the Al Jazeera cameraman held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, according to his lawyer.
The pieces, called Sketches of My Nightmare, include a drawing depicting al-Hajj, who has been on hunger strike for eight months, as a skeleton being force fed by US guards.
The drawings were submitted to the military censor but they would not permit their release.
However, detailed descriptions of the sketches were allowed through the censorship process and Lewis Peake, a political cartoonist, was able to recreate one entitled Scream for Freedom.
Al Hajj described the way he sees himself being force fed in the  so-called "Torture Chair" - the restraint chair into which they are strapped twice a day to have a 110cm tube forcibly inserted into one nostril so that liquid food can be administered.
The tube is pulled out after each feeding and the prisoner is left in the chair for up to two hours so he can be force fed again if he vomits. (Link)

Labels: Free Media, Free Speech, Torture, U.S.

The ministry is investigating the interview given by the MP, Noureddine Pir Mouazen, for the Persian-language service of Voice of America.

The MP criticised the disqualification of hundreds of reformists from Friday's parliamentary elections in Iran.

Mr Pir Mouazen is among those who have been barred from standing.

The Intelligence Minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, condemned Mr Pir Mouazen for giving the interview.

"This has definitely been treason and an appalling act," the minister told the state-run news agency IRNA.

"The law bans people in such positions from interviews with foreign radio and television. The intelligence ministry will certainly probe this and will not ignore it." (Link)

Labels: Free Media, Iran

Israel has decided officially to boycott the Qatari-based al-Jazeera news station, because of what it perceives as biased coverage, a government official said Wednesday.
"The Foreign Ministry has held discussions on the matter, and decided to embargo the station," Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabe told Army Radio, adding: "These reports are untrustworthy and they hurt us, and they arouse people to terrorist activities."
The foreign ministry intends to send a letter to Qatar in the coming days, explaining that the decision was made following an examination of coverage of recent Israeli military DF operations in the Gaza Strip.

The boycott will include a general refusal by Israeli officials to be interviewed by the station, and a ban on Al-Jazeera correspondents from entering government offices in Jerusalem.
According to Israeli officials, the station is heavily biased in favour of the Islamic Hamas movement, which administers the Gaza Strip. The officials also accuse al-Jazeera of staging a candlelight protest that that followed an Israeli government decision last month to reduce electric and gas supplies to the salient in response to continued Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. (Link)

Labels: Free Media, Israel

The channel is free to everyone in North Africa and the Middle East with a satellite or cable connection.

It will distinguish itself from other state-funded channels by reporting "without fear or favour", BBC World Service director Nigel Chapman said.

This is the BBC's second attempt at an Arabic channel. The first closed in 1996 in the wake of an editorial dispute with its Saudi funders.

The channel enters a crowded market, dominated by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera and the Saudi-funded al-Arabiya channels.

Recent TV channels financed by Western governments have struggled to make an impact, including the US-backed al-Hurra channel in Iraq and France 24 in Arabic. (Link)

Labels: Free Media

A new Arabic-language television news channel from the British Broadcasting Corporation will cover events in the Arab world “without fear or favor,” as it seeks to set itself apart from other government-financed broadcasters in the region, Nigel Chapman, director of the BBC World Service, said Monday.

The channel, BBC Arabic TV, plans to start broadcasting 12 hours a day of news and current affairs programs to the Middle East, the Persian Gulf region and North Africa on March 11, followed by round-the-clock programming by the end of the year, the BBC said. It will have a $50 million annual budget.

As satellite broadcasters have proliferated across the Arab world, new ventures financed by Western governments — including Al Hurra, which is financed by the United States, and France 24 Arabic — have struggled to compete against channels with stronger regional roots, like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. (Link)

Labels: Free Media

The Daily Star, one of the Middle East's most read newspapers, has their website blocked by StopBadware.org and Google. The statement for the block is the standard malware statement:

"This page is StopBadware's information page about www.dailystar.com.lb/.
Google has found that some portion of www.dailystar.com.lb/ contains or links to badware or otherwise violates Google's software guidelines.
Some websites intentionally distribute harmful software, while many others have been compromised without the knowledge or permission of their owners. StopBadware reports information provided by Google about these sites (see 'Reporting entities' to the left) and offers a process to assist webmasters in removing their sites from Google's list (see 'I am the owner of this site' below)."

We are currently getting in contact with StopBadware and Google regarding the block.

The Daily Star is one of the regions best newspapers alongside Israel's Haaretz.

Update - Currently the Daily Star is registered white by stopbadware.org, indicating that "No StopBadware partners are reporting badware behavior on this site." We are still waiting to find out more information as to why it is still registered as badware.

We should clarify that we have no reason to doubt Google or StopBadware's position on the matter. On the other hand, it is severely problematic that a newspaper of this importance is being issued warnings for people on the search. We sincerely hope this situation is resolved promptly.

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Update: Website is now fixed, it was most likely an advertiser in non-compliance.

Labels: Free Media, Lebanon

Egypt said on Monday that a charter adopted last week imposing regulations on Arab satellite broadcasters which was condemned by media watchdogs is not meant to restrict freedom. The charter "is not aimed at restricting freedom of the media but rather to organize it at a time when satellite channels are spreading ignorant [messages] and illegitimate religious edicts," Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi said in an interview carried by the official MENA news agency. Information ministers of the 22-member Arab League voted in favor of the guidelines on Tuesday, with Qatar the only dissenting vote.

The document, which is not legally binding, was principally backed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia and calls for the channels "not to offend the leaders or national and religious symbols" of Arab countries. "We support freedom of expression and freedom of the media, and we will continue to defend it," Fiqi said. The Cairo document authorizes signatory countries to "withdraw, freeze or not renew the work permits of media which break the regulations." It stipulates that satellite channels "should not damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values."

Programming should also "conform with the religious and ethical values of Arab society and take account of its family structure." The document was strongly criticized by media watchdogs. "This is an unacceptable move on the part of autocratic governments to rob viewers of the already small amount of broadcast freedom they have enjoyed on private television," executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists Joel Simon said in a statement. (Link)

Labels: Arab Leauge, Egypt, Free Media

A new Arab "charter" to coordinate media control is an attempt by autocratic governments to squash already limited freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Saturday.
Arab governments, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, last week adopted a satellite broadcasting charter, which will entrench state control over broadcasts and curtail political expression on the airwaves across the region of some 300 million people.
The charter, signed by information ministers in Cairo, bans broadcasting material seen as undermining "social peace, national unity, public order and general propriety," criticizing religions or defaming political, national and religious leaders.

If a broadcaster violates the charter, the host government can suspend or revoke its broadcasting license. There has been a proliferation of private satellite channels in recent years, with the total number of outlets estimated at around 300. "This is an unacceptable move on the part of autocratic governments to rob viewers of the already small amount of broadcast freedom they have enjoyed on private television," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement.
"Arab governments should immediately disavow this shameful document and hold their countries to international standards for freedom of expression," the New-York based group said.  (Link)

Labels: Arab Leauge, Free Media

Al Jazeera has said a code adopted by Arab states to govern satellite broadcasting could shackle freedom of expression.

Arab information ministers meeting on Tuesday in Cairo endorsed the charter, which allows host countries to annul or suspend the licence of any broadcaster found in violation of the rules it sets.

The Cairo document stipulates that satellite channels "should not damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values".

It says that programming should also "conform with the religious and ethical values of Arab society and take account of its family structure".

Wadah Khanfar, director-general of Al Jazeera, said in a statement issued on Friday: "Any code of ethics or governance for journalistic practices should emerge, and be governed, from within the profession and not be imposed externally by political institutions.

"Al Jazeera considers the adoption of the charter ... a risk to the freedom of expression in the Arab world." (Link)

Labels: Free Media

ARTICLE 19 condemns the adoption of the 'Principles for Organising Satellite TV in the Arab World' charter agreed yesterday by the Arab Ministers of Information in Egypt.

"These principles constitute a major set back to freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the Arab world. They attempt to muzzle what has become the main source of independent news and information for millions of people in the region. Once again, intolerance and control prevail over freedom and the free and diverse flow of information," said Dr. Agnes Callamard, ARTICLE 19's Executive Director.

The meeting was convened in Cairo on Tuesday 12 February 2008 at the request of Egypt and with the support of Saudi Arabia. The final non-binding document, adopted by all member states of the Arab League with the exception of Qatar and Lebanon, requires Satellite TV broadcasting in the region:

a. not to offend the leaders or national and religious symbols in the Arab world,

b. not to damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values,

c. to conform with the religious and ethical values of Arab society and take account of its family structure,

d. to refrain from broadcasting anything which calls into question God, the monotheistic religions, the prophets, sects or symbols of the various religious communities, and

e. to protect Arab identity from the harmful effects of globalization.

The document threatens to "withdraw, freeze or not renew the work permits of media which will
break the regulations". It calls on member states to introduce all necessary measures in their
national legislations in order to ensure that the document’s principles are fully implemented.
The provisions, if implemented, will inevitably mute and hinder the only avenue for free
expression in the region: satellite TV. They stand in direct contradiction with Article 32 of the
Arab Charter on Human Rights which guarantees the right to information and freedom of
expression and which was adopted by the Council of Ministers of the League of Arab States in
2004. The provisions also violate article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights ratified by many governments in the region.

(Link)
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This is a major setback to any semblance of a free media in the region. We will be monitoring news on this closely.

Labels: Arab Leauge, Egypt, Free Media, Saudi Arabia