The Kuwaiti government should scrap a controversial media reform law, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. Following news that the Ministry of Information suspended a popular television program, “Talk Shawk”, presented by opposition journalist Mohammad al-Washeehi late Wednesday, HRW is renewing ...

Bahraini blogger and free-speech advocate Ali Abdulemam recently escaped from the Kingdom of Bahrain after more than two years in hiding. A team of people and outside supporters, including artist Tyler Ramsey and human rights groups Amnesty International and the American ...

On Wednesday, the Kurdistan Alliance announced that its ministers and members of parliament would resume participation in Iraq's government. The State Department's Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick Ventrell said that the U.S. urges "all parties to build on this ...

In April, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued its annual report covering February 2012 through January 2013. From the MENA region, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia were listed as "Countries of Particular Concern" and Bahrain and Turkey were ...

Freedom House released its annual report on freedom of the press around the world in 2012. The report identified a global decline, asserting that "the percentage of people worldwide who enjoy a free media environment fell to its ...

On Tuesday, Bahrain's foreign ministry and members of its parliament rejected the U.S. Department of State's 2012 report on human rights practices in the country, released on April 19th. The foreign ministry stated that "the report lacks objectivity ...

The Iraqi government suspended the broadcasting licenses of ten satellite television channels, including Al Jazeera. Iraq's Communication and Media Commission is imposing a ban on the operations of Al Sharqiyah, Al Sharqiyah News, Babylonian, Baghdad, Salah al-Din, Anwar ...

The State Department's 2012 report on human rights practices in Saudi Arabia cited the leading problems as "citizens’ lack of the right and legal means to change their government; pervasive restrictions on universal rights such as freedom of expression, ...

The State Department's annual human rights report on Israel and the occupied territories focused their findings on Israel and Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and had an annex to the report for their findings on the occupied territories including areas subject to ...

The State Department's annual report on human rights in Lebanon described the country's most significant human rights abuses as "torture and abuse by government and other security forces, harsh prison and detention center conditions, and limitations on freedom of ...

The State Department's 2012 report on human rights practices in Oman found the principal problems to be "the inability of citizens to change their government, limits on freedom of speech and assembly, and discrimination against women, including political and ...

The annual State Department report on human rights practices in Iraq details a host of human rights concerns in 2012 attributed to a weakened government, increased sectarian and societal divisions and a culture of impunity and widespread corruption that ...

The State Department's 2012 report on the status of human rights in Yemen identified "arbitrary killings and acts of violence committed by the government and various entities and groups; disappearances and kidnappings; and a weak and corrupt judicial ...

The State Department's 2012 report on human rights practices in Egypt notes a host of concerns resulting from the country's 2011 revolution and transition to democracy. Among the most problematic were the increased vulnerability of women and minorities ...

The 2012 State Department report on human rights practices in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said that the most significant problems were "arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions, and lengthy pretrial detentions; limitations on citizens’ civil liberties (including the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, ...

The State Department's 2012 report on human rights practices in Qatar cited the "inability of citizens to change their government peacefully, restriction of fundamental civil liberties, and pervasive denial of expatriate workers’ rights" as the principal issues. It added, ...

The State Department released its 2012 Human Rights Practices Report for Tunisia, which details a number of challenges including “security force laxity regarding extremist crimes, the use of excessive force during protester arrests, and some constraints on freedom of ...