Government crackdowns on free expression in China and Egypt have shown disturbing similarities with repressive tactics used by the two regimes to silence dissent, Shahira Amin writes
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa
Regime repression stifles Sudan’s net freedom
Sudan has widespread and affordable internet access – the problem is the oppressive regime, writes Dalia Haj-Omar
Sudan’s government silences press through ownership
The two most influential independent newspapers in Sudan, Al-Sahafa and Al-Kartoum, have recently been bought by the National Intelligence
Security Service. Zeinab Mohammed Salih reports
Sudan blacks out internet to hide brutal suppression of protests
Peaceful protests in Sudan have led to an ongoing violent government crackdowns and internet blackout – Dalia Haj-Omar reports
Bahrain’s government strangles opposition with impunity
As Bahrain braces itself for its fourth yearly cycle of revolt, progress looks bleak. The regime continues to target human rights defenders and journalists, Ahmed Ali writes
Egyptian activists battle ‘epidemic’ of sexual harassment and violence
Sexual harassment has been widespread in Egypt for decades but since the January 2011 uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak, the problem has taken on epic proportions becoming what rights activists now describe as “an epidemic”. Shahira Amin reports
Sudanese woman risks flogging for refusing to pull up headscarf
As activist and engineer Amira Osman prepares to go on trial on Thursday, Dalia Haj-Omar looks at the Public Order laws punishing Sudanese women for ‘indecent’ clothing and behaviour
Egypt’s government reportedly shopping for PR firm
It appears General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his men are now looking for some outside help to polish up their image as protectors of the state. Milana Knezevic offers some suggestions for firms not squeamish about working with regimes with questionable human rights records.
Whatever you write about, don’t write about the censors
A Lebanese playwright has exposed the farcical sensitivity of the country’s Censorship Bureau, Padraig Reidy writes
Egypt’s retro crackdown on dissent
Prosecuting Egyptian dissenters was common practice under deposed president Hosni Mubarak with regime loyalists often fabricating charges against opponents to silence them. Shahira Amin reports on the latest wave of intimidation by the country’s current military regime.