EGYPT Press freedom was dealt a triple blow in 2005—in Parliament, in court, and on the street. President Hosni Mubarak failed to honor promises made in 2004 to introduce legislation that would decriminalize press offenses. A criminal court handed jail terms to three journalists from one of the country’s few independent newspapers for defaming a…
IRAN Hard-liners in government and the judiciary continued a crackdown on the independent media in general and on Internet journalists in particular. In the course of the year, authorities jailed Web bloggers, banned four newspapers for publishing a letter by a reformist cleric, and closed the Tehran bureau of the Arabic-language satellite-TV channel Al-Jazeera.
IRAQ Iraq was an assignment of unending danger for the hundreds of journalists covering the world’s biggest news story. Journalist murders, deaths in crossfire, abductions, and detentions continued apace, reinforcing Iraq’s distinction as the most dangerous place in the world to work as a journalist and as one of the deadliest conflicts for media in…
ISRAEL and the OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY In August, Israel facilitated access to hundreds of foreign journalists to witness its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, even providing shuttle buses to the Jewish settlements that were being dismantled. Such cooperation with the press by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was rare the rest of the year. Journalists…
LEBANON n the popular uproar that followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in February 2005, Lebanon’s press, already among the most vibrant in the Arab world, hoped for greater freedom. But a series of bomb attacks on journalists who dared criticize Syria and its Lebanese allies quickly demonstrated that the old order…
MOROCCO Morocco’s independent press has grown bigger and bolder in recent years, challenging taboos against criticizing the monarchy and questioning Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara. In March, journalists welcomed a promise by Minister of Communications Nabil Benabdallah to end imprisonment as a punishment for offenses under the kingdom’s stringent press laws. The minister’s pledge, however,…
SAUDI ARABIA Responding to international critics who linked Saudi terrorism to the lack of basic liberties in the kingdom, the government has loosened its shackles on the domestic press since the September 11, 2001, attacks, with local journalists seizing the initiative to produce more daring reports. Saudi newspapers now publish news accounts that would have…
TUNISIA Some Tunisian journalists had hoped that an influx of world business, media, and human rights figures attending a United Nations conference in Tunis in November might prompt the government to relax its grip on the local media. Instead, President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali’s 18-year-old administration ran true to form, stifling the critical press and…