Iran: Movement of one thousand bloggers supports Mousavi for presidency
By: Hamid Tehrani, Global Voices, May 6, 2009
Supporters of two leading reformist presidential candidates, former prime minister Mir Hussein Mousavi and former parliament speaker, Mehdi Karroubi are using the internet, including blogs and Facebook, to beef up their chances of being selected as presidential candidates by the Guardian Council in June’s election. In this post, we look at Mousavi supporters as a first journey into Iran’s election cyber-battleground. Around 1000 bloggers have announced that they support Mir Hussein Mousavi…
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Iran: Number of journalists and bloggers arrested on May Day increases to five
By: Reporters Without Borders, May 6, 2009
Reporters Without Borders has learned with concern that two other Iranian journalists and bloggers were arrested in Tehran during the May Day demonstrations in the centre of the city on 1 May. Their arrests bring the total number of journalists and bloggers currently held in Iran to 14. Among them three women. The newly reported arrests were those of Nikzad Zangane, who keeps a blog (http://www.nik-nevesht.blogspot.com/), and Amir Yaghoubali, who writes for the daily Etemad and the website Wechange, also known as Change for Equality (http://www.4equality.info/).
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Deep disquiet over Iraq press law
By: Basim al-Shara, Hadeel Kamil, and Dhirgham Muhammed Ali, IWPR, May 6, 2009
Journalists warn proposed media legislation does little to help them hold authorities to account. A proposed law designed to protect the press may end up obstructing it because of a failure to guarantee access to information, they say. Journalists admit the planned legislation addresses some of the threats they encounter in their work. But, they say, it ignores many of the obstacles.
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Israeli activist to be jailed for caring
By: Neve Gordon, Guardian, May 6, 2009
Ezra Nawi was ridiculed and arrested for trying to protect people’s homes. His “crime” was trying to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinian Bedouins from Um El Hir in the South Hebron region. These Palestinians have been under Israeli occupation for almost 42 years; they still live without electricity, running water and other basic services and are continuously harassed by Jewish settlers and the military.
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Iran: Court to review journalist’s conviction
By: Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post, May 6, 2009
An Iranian appeals court will review the conviction of imprisoned Iranian American journalist Roxana Saberi next week, a judiciary spokesman said Tuesday. The announcement of the review came after Saberi’s family agreed not to employ a group of prominent lawyers headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi.
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Palestine: Numbers game
By: Simona Weinglass, The New Republic, May 6, 2009
Though Shaheen is not a Hamas soldier, he is on the front lines of a different battle: the P.R. war that has erupted since the end of hostilities. As head of the Economic and Social Rights Unit for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), he is one of the people behind the fatality figures beamed across the world this past winter. On March 12, the PCHR released its most recent statistics: 1,417 dead, including 926 civilians, 255 non-combatant police officers, and 236 fighters.
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Iran: Saberi ends hunger strike
By: BBC News, May 6, 2009
The jailed US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi has ended a two-week hunger strike, her father Reza Saberi says. Roxana Saberi, 32, began eating again on Monday evening. She started the fast on 21 April to protest against an eight-year jail sentence for spying.
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Egyptian journalist experiences police state first hand at May 4 anti-Mubarak demo
By: Sarah Carr, Menassat, May 5, 2009
Egyptian activists held demonstrations on Monday, Hosni Mubarak’s birthday, to protest what they said were the Egyptian president’s failed domestic policies. Five people were arrested and 17 detained throughout the day. Journalist Sarah Carr, who had her equipment confiscated during the demonstration, has this personal account of the days protests.
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Yemen ‘curbing freedom’ of press
By: BBC News, May 5, 2009
Two media freedom campaign groups have criticised Yemen for what they say are attempts to suppress reporting about protests in the south of the country. The groups say the popular al-Ayyam newspaper has faced harassment and the confiscation of thousands of copies.
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Iran: Report on second day of widespread protest by teachers
By: Iran Human Rights Voice, May 3, 2009
On Monday, according to an announcement by the Iranian Teachers Union Center, thousands of teachers, protesting a breach of contract and presenting other demands, stayed away from their classes and entered the second day of protest.
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Palestine: Rorschach “Rachel”
By: Andrew O’Hehir, Salon, May 3, 2009
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Simone Bitton’s documentary “Rachel,” which premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, is what’s not in it. Bitton, a Moroccan-born Jewish filmmaker who spent many years in Israel and now lives in France, conducts a philosophical and cinematic inquiry into the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American activist who was killed under ambiguous circumstances in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip in March 2003.
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Group says Iran, Turkmenistan among ’10 worst countries to be a blogger’
By: Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, May 1, 2009
The Committee To Protect Journalists says Iran, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, and China are among the “10 worst countries to be a blogger. “In a new report, the New York-based journalism advocacy group says Myanmar, ruled by a military regime that heavily censors print and broadcast media, is the worst place in the world to be blogging.
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Syria: UN rules dissident’s detention illegal
By: Amnesty International, April 29, 2009
Syrian authorities should immediately free Dr. Kamal Labwani, a prominent political and human rights activist, following a UN finding that his detention is arbitrary and thus unlawful, a group of leading human rights organizations said today. The groups called on nations engaged in dialogue with Syria to make the release of Dr. Labwani and other activists a priority.
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Egypt after Mubarak
By: Stephen Glain, Middle East Online, April 28, 2009
Cairo is burning — in installments. It is a distinctively Egyptian joke, resonant as it is with politics, history and resignation. Last year, several of the city’s landmark buildings burned under mysterious circumstances. In August, the top floor of the Parliament’s Shura Council went up in flames as firemen, apparently short of adequate water supplies, looked on. A month later, the National Theatre was gutted. In November, thugs attacked the offices of the opposition El Ghad party with blowtorches while party members huddled inside and riot police stood by.
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