The arrest on 6 January of the editor and publisher of Yemen’s Al-Ayyam newspaper, Hisham Bashraheel, has reinforced concerns that Yemen’s high-profile clampdown on militants is being used as a pretext to further suppress media freedom. Bashraheel was arrested on 6 January, following clashes between police and armed guards of the daily newspaper, in which a policeman […]

A high-profile journalist who has criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic strategies has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison, news reports said Tuesday. Bahman Ahmadi Amoui “has been sentenced to seven years and four months in jail plus 34 lashes,” the reformist Kaleme and Rahesabz websites said, according to AFP. Amoui was […]

At least three people were killed on Tuesday in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan when a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside the city’s Press Club, according to media reports. Two policemen and a passer-by were killed, Reuters reported. At least 17 people were wounded. Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, has been wracked by […]

An Iraqi journalist reporting for Britain’s Guardian newspaper in Afghanistan was released along with two Afghan colleagues after being held hostage for six days in Afghanistan’s North Eastern region. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was in contact with The Guardian on 9 December. Two days later the newspaper was informed that the three journalists had been kidnapped. News of the kidnapping had […]