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Tunisia wants you to believe it is a progressive nation that protects human rights. It is, in fact, a police state that aggressively silences anyone who challenges President Ben Ali.

Iraqi Kurdish political leaders have cultivated an image of freedom and tolerance, but that increasingly clashes with reality. As the independent press has grown more assertive, attacks and arrests have increased.

Reda Helal vanished in central Cairo four years ago. Now, even the memory of the prominent state editor has nearly disappeared. Why have the government and the press ignored his case?

SANA’A, Yemen — Newspaper editor Jamal Amer arrived home just before dawn last August 23 after closing the latest edition of his independent weekly, Al-Wasat. A shout pierced the morning calm as Amer got out of his car, and, within moments, a man in a military jacket and traditional head scarf bundled the editor into…

Committee to Protect Journalists  This article appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on February 22, 2005 Posted: February 17, 2005 The media was abuzz over comments attributed to CNN news executive Eason Jordan that some of the several dozen journalists killed in Iraq were deliberately targeted by U.S. forces. Pundits, bloggers, columnists, and members of Congress…

The Arab world continues to lag behind the rest of the globe in civil and political rights, including press freedom. Despotic regimes of varying political shades regularly limit news that they think will undermine their power. Hopes that a new generation of leaders would tolerate criticism in the press have proved illusory, with many reforms…

Israeli troops destroyed several Palestinian broadcast outlets during the West Bank offensive. Was it an attempt to silence the media?

Bucking a worldwide trend toward democracy in the post-Cold War era, the political landscape of the Middle East and North Africa remained dominated by an assortment of military-backed regimes, police states, autocracies, and oligarchies. A new, younger generation of leaders has emerged in some countries in recent years, inheriting power and bringing hope for political…

Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite channel faces conflicting expectations

Syria’s press showed signs of life after Bashar al-Assad succeeded his iron-fisted father last year, but the thaw proved fleeting.