Three reformist political prisoners, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Ghorbanali Behzadannejad and Javad Emam, were granted three-day furloughs in Iran.  Tajzadeh was a senior member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and was arrested for participating in protests during the 2009 presidential elections.  He was sentenced to six years in prison.  Behzadannejad was sentenced to five years in prison for aiding presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi.  Emam was sentenced to one year in prison for ...

Brian Whitaker from the Guardian newspaper noted the current victory over the regime of Muammar Gadhafi, but stressed that the work ahead will be the hardest. He opposed any comparison of Libya to Iraq or Afghanistan noting the initial positive statements of the Transitional National Council and the arrest, not extrajudicial killing, of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi. He noted the social divisions within Libya but expressed optimism that these are not ...

National Press Club (NPC) President Mark Hamrick expressed outrage at reports of the recent imprisonment of Iranian Blogger Kouhyar Goudarzi and his mother.  Last year, the NPC awarded Goudarzi with the 2010 John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award after he "had been incarcerated for months for the 'crime' of speaking his mind."  A month later, Goudarzi had been released from prison. In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in ...

Iranian Journalist, Ahmad Zeidabadi, who was arrested in June 2009 for participating in the protests following the disputed presidential elections, was granted a 48-hour furlough to see his family before having to return to Rejaishahr Prison on Monday.  Zeidabadi has been sentenced to six years in prison, exile to Gonabad and is prohibited from social and political activity for life. Thus far, 108 journalists have been arrested over the past two ...

In his New York Times blog, Nicholas Kristof conveys the story of his Bahraini friend Hasan al-Sahaf. An artist and activist, al-Sahaf was imprisoned for opposing the regime. In June, Kristof wrote an open letter to King Hamad, appealing for his friend's release. After al-Sahaf's recent release, he wrote an account of his imprisonment for Kristof's blog. Al-Sahaf expresses hope that the Bahraini Minister of Interior will read the account of his arrest ...

The U.S. State Department announced today a new program "Ask Alan" that engages Iranians through a Persian language social media brand, USAdarFarsi, which is active on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.  The State Department's Persian Language Spokesman, Alan Eyre will provide answers in Farsi to questions from fans in 5-7 minute long videos.  The topic for August is visas. However, Iran continues it's harsh treatment against political prisoners as Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari ...

A report released by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran featured interviews with 35 prominent Iranians living within Iran including, activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and members of the political oppositions and addressed the possibility of a military strike against Iran.  The interviewees expressed "grave concern" of the possibility of a military conflict, which would negatively impact the human rights situation and provide a "pretext for the full ...

Robert Worth, writing in the New York Times Magazine, recently authored a captivating and in-depth profile of the opposition in Yemen. His piece focused on non-violent efforts, led by Bushra al- Maqtari, in the city of Taiz. Her non-violent efforts were met with overwhelming violence by forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh in late May. On May 29, scores of soldiers loyal to President Saleh stormed the central square of Taiz, ...

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer and women's activist sentenced to 11 years in prison sent a letter in March 2010 to the head of Iran's judiciary.  The letter was released for the public today: "Your Judge confirmed that Iranian women cannot be ignored under any pretext," Sotoudeh wrote.  Isa Sahahrkhiz, an Iranian journalist and one of the founders of the Society for the Defense of Press Freedom in Iran ...

On Tuesday, The Brookings Institution held a forum on “The European Union Response to the Arab Spring” featuring Catherine Ashton, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Police.  The forum was moderated by Martin Indyk, the vice president and director of the foreign policy department at the Brookings Institution.  Ashton spoke on the role of the European Union in supporting the Arab Spring. For full text, ...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Saturday that Turkey must act on concerns for increasing human rights violations and secular traditions.  Clinton said that the detainment of journalists and intellectuals was "inconsistent" with Turkey's economic and political progress.  She added that Turkey "should recommit itself to the course of modernization and embrace the democratic institutions of statehood." However, Clinton said that despite these concerns, Turkey should be a model for ...

On Wednesday the New America Foundation hosted an event entitled “How to Ignite, or Quash a Revolution in 140 Characters or Less.” The event featured eight panels throughout the day, including: Reflecting on the Tunisian Hair Trigger by Sami Ben Gharbia, co-founder of www.nawaat.org, moderated by Steve Coll, President, New America Foundation; Internet Freedom and Human Rights: The Obama Administration's Perspective by Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for ...

On Saturday, Osama Heikal, the former editor-in-chief of the Wafd party's newspaper, was appointed as Egypt's new Information Minister by the head of the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. The LA Times stated that many politicians and activists were surprised by the decision as the job slot had remained vacant for five months. AhramOnline suggests that the move "is widely seen as a significant turnabout in the interim administration's ...

CNN's Rima Maktabi and Neil Curry report that Egyptian television channels and radio stations are enjoying a new-found sense of freedom in regards to programming capabilities. During the protests at Tahrir Square, the head of Egypt State TV Nihal Kamal says that the state-owned institution lost credibility for not focusing on the revolutionary events. Independent and state-owned agencies alike are in the process of shifting their focus to political programming and ...

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt expressed concern that censorship will increase in authoritarian regimes, citing the Arab Spring as an example. He predicted that just as dictatorial governments have regulated television, in the future internet regulation will "get worse." And Schmidt also shared his concerns for the safety of Google employees, at risk of arrest and torture in certain unidentified countries. During the revolution in Egypt, Google launched a service for protesters to use ...

Robert Malley, from the International Crisis Group, gave a lengthy interview on NPR's Fresh Air program about the Arab Spring and the situation in Israel/Palestine. Malley believes the Arab Spring movements in the MENA region could be a "game changer" for Israel and the United States.  He discusses the Palestinian movement for U.N. recognition in September, the Fatah/Hamas unity government, and how the Arab Spring has affected the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.