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14th June 2010
Demonstrators protesting at the brutal killing of a 28-year-old Egyptian while in the hands of the police were themselvesassaulted by security forces in Alexandria yesterday.
Earlier, some 600 people attended funeral prayers for Khaled Said whose death on June 6 is being seen as the latest… Read more
10th June 2010
Still in Beirut, I gave a talk yesterday at the American University. Text of the talk is here, and there's also a report in this morning's Daily Star.
There were some interruptions by a supporter of medialens.org, who eventually walked out.
9th June 2010
Ali Amar was co-founder of the independent Moroccan weekly, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, which was forced to close last January. He is also author of Mohammed VI: Le grand malentendu, a book critical of the king which was published last year (extracts here, in French).
Zineb El Rhazoui is a freelance… Read more
8th June 2010
There have long been suspicions that the "Abyan massacre" - abotched airstrike in Yemen last December which killed 41 civilians, including 14 women and 21 children (plus 14 alleged al-Qaeda members), was carried out by the United States rather than the Yemen military. Photographs from the… Read more
8th June 2010
While printed newspapers in the US and Europe are fighting for survival in the face of a drop in sales and advertisin, it's an odd fact that circulations worldwide - including the Middle East - are still increasing.
What's more, while newspaper advertising in the west is unlikely to fully recover,… Read more
6th June 2010
During today's afternoon session at the Arab Free Press Forum in Beirut, Jad Melki, an assistant professor at the American University, presented some findings on the media habits of 2,500 young people (aged 13-28) in Jordan, Lebanon and the UAE.
The full report is due to be published next month,… Read more
6th June 2010
The Arab Free Press Forum, which I'm attending in Beirut, opened today with a discussion of "soft" censorship and the judicial stranglehold on the media.
The prevalence of soft censorship in Arab countries is not a sign that regimes are becoming more civilised, we were told, and in many ways it is… Read more
2nd June 2010
Following last month's botched airstrike which accidentally killed Jaber al-Shabwani, the deputy governor of Marib province, along with four bodyguards, his tribe has now accepted compensationfrom the Yemeni government – in the form of five million riyals ($22,000) and 200 Kalshnikov rifles.
I know… Read more
2nd June 2010
In a legal ruling that has far-reaching implications, Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court last week ordered Pope Shenouda III to allow two Coptic Christians, in two separate cases, to remarry after divorce.
At present the Coptic church does not allow re-marriage except in very limited… Read more
2nd June 2010
Egypt opened its border with Gaza yesterday in a move which is "seen as a response to increasing Arab anger at what is perceived as Egyptian complicity in the [Israeli] blockade" (as the Guardian puts it).
The decision followed demonstrations in Cairo on Monday and may take some of the heat out of… 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
