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Another Moroccan magazine bites the dust. Following the closureof Le Journal Hebdomadaire earlier this year – driven out of business by an advertisers' boycott and crippling libel fines – the publishers of Nichane (the first weekly magazine in colloquial Arabic) have announced that… Read more
There are many in Saudi Arabia who still hanker after the days when the government could control almost everything that people said or heard.
Last month came the announcement that bloggers would have to register with the authorities – which in the face of uproar from the blogosphere was… Read more
Even the most unlikely Arab countries hold book fairs nowadays, many of them with the cachet "International" attached to their title. They are generally promoted as a sign of modernity, progress and cultural development – though I still find it hard to take most of them seriously. Far too often… Read more
The Committee to Protect Journalists has today released a
damning report on the Yemeni government's efforts to restrict press freedom. It looks in some detail at the legislative and administrative measures as well as extra-judicial violence against journalists.
In particular, it calls… Read more
Hisham Talaat Moustafa, the Egyptian billionaire and prominent member of the ruling party who paid a hitman $2 million to kill Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, has finally escaped the gallows.
Last year Moustafa was sentenced to death for the crime, along with the hitman, a former… Read more
New research suggests closing down extremist Islamic websites is no substitute for directly challenging their religious ideology. (Read more at Comment Is Free.)
From the Egyptian daily, al-Masry al-Youm:
Chairman of al-Ahram newspaper Abdel-Monem Saeed said he has not received any complaints from authorities concerning the publishing of aPhotoshopped picture of leaders in negotiations held recently in Washington to put Mubarak ahead of… Read more
The six-day siege of al-Hawta (Hota, Huta) in southern Yemen ended yesterday with an official announcement that the army had cleared suspected al-Qaeda fighters from the town.
The huge operation, involving tanks, artillery, air strikes and 1,500 troops may have been intended to show donor… Read more
Abdel-Monem Said, chairman of al-Ahram, the leading pro-government newspaper in Egypt, has issued a statement headed: "The Ahram 'photo' and the Western media's reaction".
This is in response to criticism of the doctored photograph which purported to show President Mubarak… Read more
More than 1,500 Yemeni troops launched a major offensive yesterday against the southern town of Hota (Huta, Hawta) which they have been besieging since Sunday. Xinhua news agencyquotes a local counter-terrorism official as saying:
"The massive offensive started with ... air raids and a partial… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
