Unlawful Imprisonment

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – All parties to the conflict in Yemen should immediately release anyone arbitrarily detained and to reveal what happened to those who have been forcibly disappeared since the conflict began in late 2014, Human Rights Watch, Mwatana for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said […]

censorship

20 Years After Deadly US Attack, Free Press Still Threatened in Iraq

Human Rights Watch

Sarah Sanbar Iraq Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division @SarahSanbar ( Human Rights Watch ) – April 8 is a day that lives in infamy for media in Iraq. 20 years ago, two American missiles hit the Al Jazeera offices in Baghdad, killing a reporter and wounding a cameraman. Shortly afterwards, American forces […]

censorship

Protesting the Imprisonment of Professor Awad al-Qarni, Popular Religious Reformer, by Saudi Arabia

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – March 09, 2023 His Majesty King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the two Holy Mosques Fax: (via Ministry of the Interior) +966 11 403 3125 His Royal Highness Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud Crown Prince, Kingdom […]

censorship

Keeping Resistance Alive during McCarthyism: Chandler Davis and Academic Freedom at the University of Michigan

Alan M. Wald

Alan Wald, Steve Batterson and Peggie Hollingsworth | University of Michigan | – Making Michigan lecture series – Keeping Resistance Alive “In 1954, Chandler Davis was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His fellows on the stand were his colleagues Mark Nickerson and Clement L. Markert, and his student friends Edward […]

censorship

Iran Charges 16, Including Several Teens, For Protests Amid Reports Of Forced Confessions

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Ardeshir Tayebi | – ( RFE/RL ) – Iran has charged 16 people, including several teenagers, in the northwestern Iranian city of Urmia for planning demonstrations and accusing them of espionage amid reports those detained gave confessions after being beaten. In November, 25 people were arrested for allegedly having connections with “spy organizations” and […]

censorship

Saudi Arabia: Government Agents infiltrate Wikipedia, sentence Independent Admins to Prison

Global Voices

By SMEX | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – The Saudi Arabian government infiltrated Wikipedia by recruiting the organization’s highest ranked administrators in the country to serve as government agents to control information about the country and prosecuting those who contributed critical information about political detainees, said SMEX and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) […]

Authoritarianism

Dual Iranian-British national Alireza Akbari’s execution plunges Iranian Relations with the West to a new Low

Farhang Jahanpour

Oxford (Special to Informed Comment) – On Saturday 14 January, the Iranian regime executed a 61-year old dual Iranian-British national and a former deputy defence minister, Alireza Akbari. The 15th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, presided over by Abolqasem Salavati who had been the judge of numerous controversial cases and who has been sanctioned […]

Authoritarianism

Iran Executions: the Role of the ‘Revolutionary Courts’ in breaching Human Rights

The Conversation

By Simon Rice, University of Sydney | – (The Conversation) – The Iranian government has attempted to brutally suppress the widespread protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022. Central to Iran’s response have been the country’s “revolutionary courts”. They have conducted heavily-criticised trials resulting in at least […]