Al-Quds

THE EXPLOSION OF VIOLENCE THAT BEGAN IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES on September 29 has been unsparing of journalists, reinforcing the West Bank and Gaza Strip’s reputation as among the world’s most hazardous beats. Reasons why included the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Israeli security forces, and militant Jewish settlers. While no conclusive evidence exists that the…

LEBANESE JOURNALISTS HAVE BEEN NOTED FOR THEIR FREEWHEELING STYLE, but the freedom and independence that characterized Lebanon’s media before the 15-year civil war have yet to return, for reasons that include censorship, self-censorship, archaic media laws, and occasional state intimidation. Nevertheless, an important taboo was breached in March, before Israel’s anticipated withdrawal from south Lebanon,…

WITH A PALESTINIAN UPRISING RAGING IN THE ISRAELI-OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, the Oslo peace process dead, and his popularity slipping, the future of Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian National Authority (PNA) seemed precarious. But Arafat’s leadership position appeared unchallenged for the time being, with the result that press freedom remained under threat. The year was marked by…

SINCE THE UNIFICATION OF NORTH AND SOUTH YEMEN IN 1990, the Yemeni press has become exceptionally free by Arabian peninsula standards. But in the past six years, authorities have aggressively moved to narrow existing press freedoms via criminal prosecutions, censorship, and intimidation. Taken together, these actions have helped foster an increasing climate of self-censorship in…

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its deep concern for Noureddine Aouididi, a London-based Tunisian journalist whose family has been denied the right to travel outside Tunisia. We fear that these restrictions have been imposed in reprisal for Aouididi’s journalistic work.

For the second consecutive year, President Hosni Mubarak’s government ignored vocal protests against the state’s use of criminal and libel laws to muzzle journalists. At least 11 reporters and editors were investigated or tried for libel and other alleged publications offenses. According to Egyptian human-rights organizations, dozens of criminal cases were pending against members of…

Among many Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, the optimism that accompanied the establishment of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian National Authority (PNA) six years ago appears to have given way to disillusionment. Widespread corruption within the PNA, its perceived failure in negotiating a just peace, and worsening economic conditions for much of the population…

With the passing of Morocco’s King Hassan II and King Hussein of Jordan, Syrian president Hafez al-Assad became the Arab world’s second-longest-surviving leader. Only Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi has ruled longer. During three decades of one-man rule, Assad has ruthlessly eradicated all internal dissent. His February “reelection” by referendum with nearly 100 percent of the…

In a year that saw strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali reelected in October with 99.42 percent of the vote, the press remained in the stranglehold of the Tunisian police state. For the second year in a row, CPJ named President Ben Ali one of the world’s top 10 enemies of the press. Since ousting “president…

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its deep concern about the arrest of Maher al-Dessouki, a television journalist with the independent Al-Quds Educational TV station. On the morning of September 15, Palestinian Preventive Security Services (PSS) agents arrested al-Dessouki in the West Bank city of Ramallah. According to the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW), he was accused by Palestinian authorities of “possessing material inciting against the PNA.”