الصفحة الرئيسية

State control

International: Journalism and 'the words of power'

Robert Fisk, The Independent newspaper's Middle East correspondent, gave the following address to the fifth Al Jazeera annual forum on May 23: Power and the media are not just about cosy relationships between journalists and political leaders, between editors and presidents. They are not just about the parasitic-osmotic relationship between supposedly honourable reporters and the nexus of power that runs between White House and state department and Pentagon, between Downing Street and the foreign office and the ministry of defence. In the western context, power and the media is about words - and the use of words.

ملك البحرين: يشكل هيئة حكومية تحت مسمى "المؤسسة الوطنية لحقوق الانسان"

بعد انتظار لاكثر من 8 سنوات، ووعود قدمتها حكومة البحرين للامم المتحدة بتشكيل هيئة وطنية مستقلة لحقوق الانسان، اصدر ملك البحرين أمرا ملكيا رقم (46) لسنة 2009 بإنشاء "المؤسسة الوطنية لحقوق الانسان"، ثم امرا ملكيا آخرا (رقم 16) لسنة 2010 بتعيين رئيس واعضاء "المؤسسة الوطنية لحقوق الانسان".

Bahrain: Protest against government-backed 'National Human Rights Institution'

PRESS STATEMENT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE “NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTION” IN BAHRAIN: NGOs consider this a non-independent government-backed organization and will continue demanding the formation of an independent national instition. The choice of members appointed by royal order to the committee of this organization poses serious questions on the credibility and independence of this organization and the NGOs these members are associated with. 

Iran: With death sentences, government seeks to deter opposition

It didn't take much for Iranian courts to sentence 10 people to death over the country's post-election turmoil. For one prisoner, the main evidence was that he allegedly sent videos of protests abroad. The government accuses the 10 of leading unrest after the disputed presidential election, but none of them seem to have played any significant role in the protest movement. What most of the prisoners have in common is tenuous past links to a much-disliked exile movement, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization.

Belgique: Une manifestation pour la burqa interdit

La Ville de Bruxelles a décidé, jeudi 20 mai, d'interdire une manifestation contre l'interdiction de la burqa qui devait se dérouler samedi dans la capitale belge. Une organisation baptisée Muslim Rise avait appelé à défiler contre le vote récent, par les députés belges, d'un texte visant à interdire le voile intégral dans l'espace public. Plus généralement, elle appelait à la constitution d'un "front contre l'oppression des frères et sœurs musulmans". Elle espérait rassembler des milliers de manifestants venus de Belgique et d'Europe. Des actions de ce type sont d'ailleurs annoncées en France, en Grande-Bretagne et devant les ambassades belges dans d'autres pays de l'Union.

Iran: Shiva Nazar-Ahari's family accuse pro-government media of slander in run up to her May trial

The trial of human rights activist Shiva Nazar-Ahari will begin in Tehran on May 23rd 2010. This activist who has been behind bars for 11 months, continues to be held in Evin’s solitary confinement Ward 209 with another cellmate. Rooz spoke with Shiva’s mother, Shahrzad Kariman, about her daughter’s situation and living conditions in prison. She said her daughter seemed to have excellent morale and talked about how absolutely proud she was of her. 

UPDATED: Iran: Imprisoned activist Shiva Nazar Ahari to go on trial for 'acts against national security'

UPDATE: Shiva Nazar's trial, due to take place on 23 May, has been postponed without a future date being set. In March 2010, Women’s human rights defender and WLUML council member, Shadi Sadr, took the extraordinary step of dedicating her International Women of Courage Award to Shiva Nazar Ahari, a young human rights activist and a member of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), currently imprisoned in Iran for ‘acts against national security’. Sadr refrained from attending the award ceremony in the U.S. in the hope that her absence would draw the international community’s attention to Nazar Ahari’s dire situation, urging the audience in a speech recorded for the event that “any measures available to you [be taken] to help to free Shiva along with other human rights activists and journalists in Iranian prisons”. According to Nazar Ahari’s mother, she will be brought to trial at Revolutionary Court No. 26 on Sunday 23 May. The offences she is being accused of carry severe penalties. Please see attached our sample letter . You can follow this link (and scroll down) to watch a series of films in Farsi on Shiva by Iranian WHRD, filmmaker and WLUML ally, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh.

Iran: Clotilde Reiss a été libérée samedi dernier par Téhéran

La Française qui était détenue à Téhéran depuis juillet 2009 est rentrée à Paris hier. Une libération activement revendiquée par Me Abdoulaye Wade et sa diplomatie. L’universitaire française Clotilde Reiss a été libérée samedi dernier par Téhéran. Accusée d’espionnage, la Française a été arrêtée le 1er juillet 2009, dans la capitale iranienne. Il lui était reproché d’avoir filmé des sites classés sensibles et des scènes de manifestations lors des contestations électorales du 12 juin dernier. Dans les colonnes du journal Le Monde, le Président Abdoulaye Wade accuse cependant indirectement la France d’avoir retardé une libération qui était possible il y a six mois.

Iran: Shadi Sadr et Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh ont été condamnées à des peines de prison par contumace

Deux activistes féministes, Shadi Sadr et Mahboubeh Abbas-Gholizadeh, qui se trouvent à l'étranger, ont été condamnées à des peines de prison, selon l'agence Ilna. L'avocate Shadi Sadr a été condamnée à six ans de prison et 74 coups de fouet pour action contre la sécurité nationale et trouble à l'ordre public, selon son avocat Mohammad Mostaphaie.

Iran: French academic arrives home after spying conviction

A French teaching assistant whom the Iranian regime accused of spying for the west said she was "very, very happy" to be back on home turf today after a Tehran court commuted a prison sentence that had kept her in Iran for 10 months. Making a brief but emotional statement at the Elysée palace, Clotilde Reiss, 24, thanked various French and Iranian figures – including the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy – for supporting her through the ordeal and securing her release.

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