Middle East Censorship News

The most talked about Bollywood film of this year, The Dirty Picture , has been banned in Qatar.

Our distributors applied for a censorship certificate in Qatar and they received a notice saying that the movie can't be released there. The film is currently being screened in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other Middle East countries, but it will not go to Qatar, says Tanuj Garg, CEO Balaji Motion Pictures, adding: The film was supposed to release there either this week or the next, but we were informed that it has been deemed unsuitable for theatrical exhibition.

There were some hitches in releasing the film in Pakistan as well but it was all sorted out when the makers appealed their Censor Board's decision. Even a conservative country like Pakistan released the film after initially rejecting it. Qatar is the only place where the film has been banned, reveals Garg.

Press TV have issued another propaganda peice suggesting that Ofcom are set to ban the satellite channel from broadcasting with a UK licence.

Press TV writes in a website posting:

London has spared no effort in its two-year-long battle against Press TV. Its media tool, Ofcom, is now about to revoke the channel's broadcast license, hoping this desperate measure will silence criticism.

And in a coincidently timed piece, the Wall Street Journal points out that Iran is regularly jamming BBC programmes targeted at Iran:

As uprisings rolled across the Middle East this year, Iran stepped up its jamming of the BBC, Voice of America and other Western networks with Persian-language news channels. The move is intended to prevent Iranian audiences from seeing foreign broadcasts the Iranian government finds objectionable, five networks protested in a joint statement this month.

Some 45% to 60% of Iranians watch satellite TV, according to estimates from the state media company and an Iranian research center, exceeding the number believed to use the Internet. Iran so far seems to be winning a struggle to filter out unwanted TV content and broadcast its own propaganda: The country jams channels like the BBC on Western satellites even as Iran's state media company broadcasts pro-government news on some of the same satellites, and at times has aired forced confessions of political detainees.

Iran is having it both ways, said a U.S. State Department official. While they benefit from the international community's respect for 'freedom of expression' and 'freedom of the airwaves,' they deny that same right to their own citizens, aggressively jamming Persian-language broadcasts from other countries.

The Swiss Lacoste art prize worth 25,000 euros has been cancelled amid controversy that the organisers censored one of the nominees.

Jerusalem-born artist Larissa Sansour claims she was taken off the shortlist for being too pro-Palestinian .

The Elysee Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland said it was the prize's sponsors, clothing company Lacoste, who decided to exclude Sansour.

Lacoste denied the accusation and withdrew their sponsorship.

Sansour was among eight finalists shortlisted for the photography prize for her Nation Estate project. Her trio of images was inspired by Palestine's attempt to gain UN recognition and depicts a skyscraper housing the entire Palestinian population.

The news of her removal earlier this week came as a complete surprise, she said. Sansour told The Independent she had been told by senior staff at the museum that the reason for her removal was allegedly because her work was considered by Lacoste to be too pro-Palestinian .

Organisers released a statement saying her work had been deemed inappropriate for the prize, which had a Joie de Vivre (joy of life) theme.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called on France to halt plans for a law criminalising the denial of the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I as genocide.

The French lower house of parliament is due to consider a bill that proposes a one-year prison term and a heavy fine.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million people died during mass deportations. Turkey puts the figure at closer to 300,000.

In a statement, President Gul said the proposed legislation, set to go before the National Assembly on Thursday, denied Turkey the freedom to reject unfair and groundless accusations . He also suggested that France was jeopardising centuries of friendship because of small political calculations .

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote to French President Nicolas Sarkozy warning him that bill was hostile and directly targeted Turkey and Turks living in France. Such steps will have grave consequences for future relations between Turkey and France in political, economic, cultural and all areas, and the responsibility will rest with those behind this initiative, the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.

A delegation of Turkish MPs and businessmen has travelled to Paris to lobby against the bill and was due to meet Sarkozy's diplomatic adviser, Jean-David Levitte, and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.

Update: Passed

23rd December 2011. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

The Turkish prime minister has announced measures against France after MPs passed a bill criminalising denial of the 1915-16 Armenian genocide .

Ankara is recalling its ambassador and freezing political visits as well as joint military projects, including exercises, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The bill was passed by the French National Assembly on Thursday and is due to go before the Senate next year.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has publicly opposed it.

Under the bill, those publicly denying genocide would face a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros.

The Exorcist
Gem TV, 20 September 2011, 18:30 (UK) and 21 September 2011, 11:30 (UK)

A complainant drew Ofcom's attention to the morning and early evening scheduling of The Exorcist , the notorious 1970s horror film.

Gem TV is a Farsi (Iranian) language channel broadcasting via the Hotbird 6 satellite. The channel can be received in Europe and the Middle East. The licence for this channel is held by General Entertainment & Music Ltd (GEM)

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rates the The Exorcist at „18 for theatrical and video release.

Ofcom considered the scheduling of the film to raise an issue warranting investigation under Rule 1.23 of the Code, which states:

BBFC 18-rated films or their equivalent must not be broadcast before 2100 on any service (except for pay per view services), and even then they may be unsuitable for broadcast at that time.

GEM said that it accepted that it had made a mistake in scheduling. However, the Licensee told us, because the channel broadcasts in Farsi for Iranian viewers its programme times and schedules are based on Iranian time. The Licensee stated that the film's scheduling would therefore have been compliant with the Code when judged against Iranian local time. The Licensee apologised and stressed that it strives to comply with Ofcom's rules

Ofcom Decision: Breach of Rule 1.23

Given The Exorcist's themes of self-mutilation, possession and violence, Ofcom considered this film to be clearly unsuitable for children.

Ofcom noted the Licensee's comments in respect of its target audience being in Iran, but rejected this as a defence. First, the transmission of The Exorcist at 11:30 UK time was inappropriately scheduled even when assessed against local Iranian time. The same time slot would have been 15:00 in local Iranian time, still well before the 21:00 watershed.

Second, and more importantly, where a service can be received in more than one time zone, scheduling considerations made under the Code are judged against the earliest time at which the service can be received (i.e. the most westerly time zone). For GEM TV this is UK time. In that respect we would point out that the complaint was made by a viewer in the UK.

For The Exorcist to have been scheduled in the morning and early evening therefore represented two clear and serious breaches of the Code.

We have reminded GEM Ltd of its responsibilities under its Ofcom licence. Any recurrence of this issue is likely to result in the consideration of the imposition of statutory sanctions.

Breaches of Rule 1.23

Evolution, apparently, ranks alongside pornography and terrorism as topics that the Turkish government's controversial new Internet filtering scheme keeps out of the hands of children.

Internet users in Turkey were surprised yesterday to find that several educational Web sites about evolution were inaccessible. After Hurriyet Daily News reported the censorship, the government reversed the block. But science advocates and Internet freedom activists say it's a worrying sign of the government's attitude toward evolution.

Turkey's filtering program, which was launched at the end of November, has drawn broad criticism because it filters sites about political opposition to the government and blocks sites that go against conveniently undefined Turkish values .

Internet users have the option to select either a family, or child, or standard level of censorship. The Turkish Information Technologies and Communication Authority sets the content of each of these options.

Aykut Kence, a biologist at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, told ScienceInsider in an e-mail that antievolution Web sites developed by Harun Yahya remained accessible without any restriction. Yahya is the pen name of Adnan Oktar, a religious activist who writes creationist textbooks for children and sends them to schools across Europe.

When reports emerged last week that Danielle Arbid's noir film Beirut Hotel had been banned by Lebanese film censors from General Security, some were skeptical as to why. While the film features sexual content, an anonymous General Security source said the film was banned because it mentions the 2005 assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

Mustapha Hamoui, author of the blog Beirut Spring , wrote: It seems to me that the film was banned from Lebanese movie theaters...because it features a double-whammy of a taboo: Explicit sex between a Lebanese woman and a foreign man.

According to a blog entry on the Tajaddod Youth website , which allegedly summarized a study on how censorship in Lebanon is conducted, General Security almost always complies with the wishes of religious institutions and political figures with regard to film censorship. The study, conducted by human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh, will be released on December 15 alongside a draft bill to reform cinema censorship, according to one Tajaddod Youth member who wished to remain anonymous.

The very fact that film censorship is still rampant has caused stern criticism from free speech advocates, including Beirut Hotel director Arbid who is threatening to take legal action against General Security.

Arbid told NOW Lebanon that she is working with Human Rights lawyer Saghieh, who is offering legal representation for free, to take legal action against General Security for what she describes as an issue of freedom.

It seems Arbid is not the only one who is disenchanted with the system in place. Lea Baroudi, who is part of a group of activists behind the Facebook page Stop Cultural Terrorism in Lebanon, said that she and her peers are frustrated with two main issues relating to the practice of censorship in place. The first is the lack of transparency surrounding the process as it involves numerous state institutions with the capacity to censor and the criteria for censorship are not clearly defined. Secondly, censors are patronizing the Lebanese people. Let them make their own decisions [whether or not they want watch a specific film], she added.

Update: Government Reasons

24th December 2011. See  article from  dailystar.com.lb

The Directorate General of General Security wishes to clarify the following:

On Sept. 1, 2010, Sabine Sidawi applied for permission to film a movie, entitled Hotel Room , and she submitted along with the request a copy of the screenplay, on the basis of which she had applied for a permit for filming.

The screenplay's content was reviewed by the relevant department, and Sidawi was asked to make some alterations as the film is centered on a real crime, the assassination of late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and is based on a fictional screenplay that involves the intelligence agency of a friendly Western state and a Lebanese security apparatus, in such as way as to suggest that the latter is indifferent to an opportunity to find the the truth about the Hariri assassination; in fact, the film shows that the Lebanese security apparatus liquidated the person who could provide such information.

It was agreed with Sabine Sidawi to delete the name of the crime, especially as the case is still being investigated by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and thus one cannot suggest incorrect hypotheses that affect foreign states or official institutions, regarding a real crime about which no verdicts have yet been issued.

Based on this, Sidawi submitted an altered text, as was agreed, and she received permission to film the movie on Sept., 25, 2010. She also changed the name of the film to Beirut Hotel instead of Hotel Room.

On Oct., 25, 2011, Italia Film Company applied for permission to show the film in question and it was discovered that it [the film] was based on the original screenplay without any alterations.

A young woman in Egypt whose free soul might better have been born in Berkley rather than Cairo, was crucified in Tahrir Square this week by men who identified her as the nude activist blogger who has taken a stand against rampant sexism in this mostly Muslim country.

Easily spotted and vulnerable, Aliaa Elmahdy, was targeted, bound, and drug through the crowd of demonstrators in Egypt. However she is taken to what appears to be a medical team and it seems clear from the video that those personnel, male and female, began protecting her as soon as she was delivered to them, I hope that is the case.

Thousands of Egyptians erupted in anger over the nude photos of Aliaa that have been stirring controversy in this ancient place for more than a month.

Egypt's newest newspaper has become the victim of state censorship after staff were ordered to shelve an entire print run of 20,000 copies over an article that suggested the leader of the governing Military Council could go to prison.

Employees at the Egypt Independent, an English-language weekly, were told the latest edition could not be distributed because of the final two paragraphs of an opinion piece about Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the de facto president.

It is another blow for those who have raised concerns about the direction of Egypt's revolution, with critics alleging that the country's top brass appear intent on undermining the popular uprising to preserve their decades-old networks of power.

The offending article, headlined, Is Tantawi reading the public pulse correctly? , had suggested that many in the military believed their reputation was being abused. The military institution could remove him to save itself, argued the opinion piece, by American historian Dr Robert Springborg. It concluded that a group of discontented officers might decide that a coup within the coup was the best way to deal with Tantawi, and mentioned a possible contender for the Field Marshal's post.

An Internet content filtering system that Turkey's Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) introduced on 22 November is proving controversial.

Although use of the filtering system is optional, it is misleading. It is supposed to protect Internet users, especially minors from objectionable content by censoring certain keywords. But tests of the new system have established that access to websites is being blocked arbitrarily.

The BTK wants us to believe that, by giving Internet users a choice, it is not practicing censorship, Reporters Without Borders said:

Claiming that use of this filtering system makes an Internet connection secure is disgraceful. Some websites may be inaccessible but that does not make the Internet connection any safer.

The proposed solution is not fit for purpose and threatens online free expression, as the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled a week ago, above all because of the risk of overblocking. If only porn is supposed to be blocked, why are terms related to Kurdish separatist movements, for example, on the list of censored keywords?

We condemn a policy of backdoor censorship. The BTK must abandon this system, which is reinforcing Internet censorship in Turkey.

Anyone can sign up for the filtering system, which comes in a family version and a child version. So far only 22,000 of the country's 11.5 million Internet users have signed up.

The filtering criteria are defined by a commission consisting of 11 members. As most of them are government officials, the commission's independence and impartiality are questionable. It has so far drawn up a list of 130 harmful keywords in Turkish, English and German. The list includes pornography, sex, and Verbot (the German word for ban ). It also includes such words as mother-in-law, incest and even gay.

This eclectic and often discriminatory list will extend the censorship to ordinary news websites and prevention campaign sites, while encouraging homophobia. Keywords related to separatist political groups such as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are also filtered, which clearly shows that the BTK is not just targeting online porn.

Yaman Akdeniz, deputy head of the law faculty at Istanbul's Bilgi University and founder of Cyber-Rights, said that the child version blocks access to Facebook and the online video-sharing website YouTube. Facebook cannot be accessed with the family version either, unless the user specifically requests access. Akdeniz said blocking a five-year-old child's access to YouTube is understandable, but denying access for adolescents over 14 is exaggerated.

Ofcom has reversed its unpublished decision to revoke the broadcasting licence of Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster's English-language outlet, as tensions rise between Britain and the Islamic republic.

Ofcom had apparently told Press TV last month that it was minded to ban it from broadcasting in the UK after the channel aired an interview with Maziar Bahari, an imprisoned Newsweek journalist, taking his words seriously when in fact the interview had been conducted under duress.

However, after hearing final submissions from the broadcaster, and amidst a crisis in bilateral relations that has seen Britain withdraw members of its diplomatic mission from its Tehran embassy after the building was stormed by protesters, Ofcom is understood to have downgraded the sanction to a fine of £ 100,000. Details of the sanction are expected to be published this week.

According to the WikiLeaks cables, the Foreign Office told a US diplomat in 2010 that the UK government was exploring ways to limit the operations of ... Press TV. At the time, the department warned the US that UK law sets a very high standard for denying licences to broadcasters. Licences can only be denied in cases where national security is threatened, or if granting a licence would be contrary to Britain's obligations under international law. Currently neither of these standards can be met with respect to Press TV, but if further sanctions are imposed on Iran in the coming months a case may be able to be made on the second criterion .

A Foreign Office spokesman said that there had been no government intervention in the process.

A gathering of Turkish and European parliamentarians in Brussels turned eventful when a far-right Dutch deputy lambasted Islam and Turkey and then attempted to present a supposedly blasphemous cartoon as a 'gift' to a Turkish minister.

Barry Madlener, a Dutch politician from the Party for Freedom (PVV), first caused tensions when he said at a meeting of the European Union-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee that Turkey did not belong to Europe because it has a backward Islamic ideology that does not fit with European values. Islam and freedoms cannot coexist, Madlener said before accusing Turkey of restricting freedom of the press and Internet and criticizing increasing violence against women and homosexuals.

He said even caricaturists were being put on trial and walked towards Turkish State Minister Egemen Bağış, one of the panelists at the meeting, saying he wanted to present him an illustration by a Turkish cartoonist as a 'gift'.

The cartoon, published in Turkish humor magazine Penguen , landed cartoonist Bahadır Baruter in court, with a state prosecutor charging him in September with insulting religious values and demanding a one-year jail sentence. The cartoon proved controversial as the phrases there is no Allah and religion is a lie were hidden in the background.

When Madlener attempted to present a framed copy of the cartoon to Bağış, Turkish lawmaker Akif Demirkıran, who was chairing the meeting, received the cartoon as Bağış was heard shouting, Don't take it! Bağış, who is also Turkey's chief negotiator for EU talks, then told Madlener: I have enough cartoons at home. Put it in your appropriate place. The EU Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle attempted to calm down Bağış, who was visibly rattled.

Members of the European Union-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee protested Madlener by clapping

Iran has banned the computer game Battlefield 3 because it depicts a U.S. military assault against the city of Tehran using tanks and aircraft.

All computer stores are prohibited from selling this illegal game, said an unnamed deputy with the security and intelligence division of Iran's police in a statement carried by the Asr-e Ertebat weekly.

An unnamed shop owner told the Associated Press. that Iranian police have raided (shops) and arrested owners for selling the game secretly even before the ban became public.

The Fars news agency reports on an online petition with 5000 signatures which claims a US conspiracy. The petition reads

We understand that the story of a videogame is hypothetical ... (but) we believe the game is purposely released at a time when the US is pushing the international community into fearing Iran.

Libya marked the end of the Gadhafi-era blacklist with a ceremonial unbanning of books in the former regime's public library.

Many of Libya's emerging political hopefuls joined militia leaders and returning expat exiles at the Italianate Royal Palace for a sunset event..

With a fanfare of Libyan bagpipers in full ceremonial flourish, the VIP crowd made its way to the top for of the palace, heaped with table upon table of books deemed unreadable during Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year rule.

There, Arabic titles including The Secret Life of Saddam Hussein and The CIA Files of Arab Rulers sat alongside censored troves of Islamic literature, theology and philosophy. Books about Israel, Hezbollah, books by Salmon Rushdie. One slim volume was titled Sex In The Arab World.

Among the attendees was journalist and human rights activist Hassan al-Amin, one of the Gadhafi regime's sharpest critics during his years of exile in London, who shared a bittersweet swirl of emotions as the books were revealed.

This is a major moment for us because this is where we reclaim our intellectual freedom. We say goodbye to an era where free thinking was forbidden, where ideas were dangerous, Amin told the Star.

The head of Nessuna TV has appeared in court in Tunis on charges of undermining sacred values, undermining decent standards and causing trouble to public order.

The case, which has been brought against Nabil Karoui and two of his employees by 140 lawyers, follows the broadcast by his private TV station of the film Persepolis on 7 October.

The animated film, based on Marjane Strapi's novel about the 1979 revolution in Iran, supposedly 'offended' many Muslims because in one scene it depicts their god as an old man with a beard. Literal images of their god are forbidden by Islam.

Karoui apologised for the scene, but anger at its transmission erupted into street demonstrations in the Tunisian capital last month, culminating in Karoui's home being firebombed.

He told AFP that he will plead not guilty to the charges. The hearing was adjourned and will resume in Tunis on 23 January 2012.

A group of unidentified businessmen has launched three international Arabic-language television channels as part of a project to promote Egyptian belly dancing in the region and abroad.

From Europe to Asia and North America, each day lovers of oriental dance watch el-Farah (Arabic for Joy), el-Teet and Darabuka (the drum) channels on NileSat 1 to enjoy this ancient Egyptian art. These three channels show professional and amateur dancers from around the world as well shoddy Egyptian singers, who take part in elaborate non-stop shows.

Of course the report lined up the inevitable whinges from nobody passers-by. Zainab Naguib, described as a 'veiled government employee' said that she totally rejected the idea of launching these three channels, which she dismissed as immoral and vulgar.

It is absolutely wrong and unnecessary to have these channels because they are offensive to our religion, honour and customs.

Shed added that the three channels have nothing to do with personal freedom:

If freedom harms others, it is no longer a freedom. These dancers are sinners because they wear outfits that do not cover the breasts, the belly button and what is below that. They also make gestures that awaken the sexual instincts of viewers. Freedoms and public rights are not absolute, they are limited by the respect of the family which is the base of the Egyptian conservative society that rejects any form of seduction.

Such entertainment forms are branded un-Islamic and are associated with prostitution, she asserted.

Nagehan Alci is a young Turkish journalist who writes a column for the mainstream daily Aksam and appears regularly prominent on news channels, including CNN Turk. She is, by all definitions, a secular liberal. Yet Mrs. Alci said something on TV last week that enraged millions of secular Turks. During a discussion on Turkish political history, she referred to Ataturk, Turkey's founder  father, as a ' dictator'.

Then it took less than a day for a campaign to culminate against her in the media. The National Party, a die-hard defender of the Ataturk cult, called on the whole Turkish nation to protest this insult. Kemalist columnists in various papers wrote angry pieces that bashed Alci and passionately argued why Ataturk, the Supreme Leader, was never a dictator.

Moreover, a Turkish prosecutor initiated an investigation into Alci's comment for possible violation of the Law to Protect Ataturk. It is very probable, in other words, that Alci might be tried for insulting Ataturk, which is a serious crime in Turkey that can put you in jail for six years.

The funny thing, of course, is that the term dictator is not an insult but a political definition, and Ataturk really fits into that quite nicely. From 1925, when he initiated the single party regime, to his death in 1938, he ruled Turkey with the perfect dictatorial style: he banned all opposition parties, closed down even civil society organizations (from Sufi orders to freemasons), and did not allow a single critical voice in the media. You just need Politics 101 to call this regime a dictatorship.

Of course, Ataturk cannot be considered in the same camp with the more notorious dictators of his age, such as Hitler or Stalin, who were ruthless mass-murderers. When compared to such figures, Ataturk was a very mild autocrat. Hence historian Ahmet Kuyas,, who has genuine sympathy for Ataturk and his heritage, argues that he must be called a good dictator. Yet a dictator, nonetheless.

A blog image at BlogBaladi.com has intrigued the world as it shows a Beirut cinema with Steven Spielberg's name covered over on promotional posters for the new TinTin film.

Last year, a U.S. embassy memo released by WikiLeaks revealed that Spielberg had been blacklisted by the Arab League's Central Boycott Office in 2006 after making a $1 million donation to Israel during the conflict with Lebanon. Representatives from 14 Arab states voted to ban all films related to Spielberg.

Films have continued to be shown in Lebanon and other Arab League countries, however, but the blacking out of Spielberg's name suggest that the issue hasn't totally been forgotten.

Internet material promoting the film in Lebanon has not been similarly censored and carries Steven Spielberg's credits as per normal.

Update: Spielberg Unbanned

12th November 2011. See  article from  nowlebanon.com

Bassam Eid, coordinator for Empire Theatres in Lebanon, said that General Security had nothing to do with the incident. Instead, he contends that the act of censorship was the work of a stupid employee who thought that covering Spielberg's name was procedure and was acting alone. When asked whether NOW Lebanon could speak with the offending employee, Eid refused, saying, I don't want to make it a big issue. I prefer no.

Eid stressed, though, that Cinema City was the only theater affected by the temporary censorship and argued that had it been government policy, the film would not have made it to cinemas in the first place. As of Sunday evening, the strips of tape were removed, and Spielberg's name was visible on film posters.

Regardless, others are not convinced this was an innocent mistake.

Turkey's controversial opt in/out website blocking system was developed within the Draft Bill on Principles and Procedures for the Safe Use of the Internet as published by the Council of Information Technologies and Telecommunication (BTK) on 22 February 2011.

Assistant Prof Kerem Altiparmak, member of staff at the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences, explained in a statement:

Bianet filed a case with the Council of State requesting to halt the execution of the Draft on Principles and Procedures for the Safe Use of the Internet that was going to be enforced on 22 August.

Very probably, the BTK contacted the Council of State as a result of the trial. Then, the BTK made a few amendments in the draft and postponed the application to 22 November.

The Council of State did not dismiss bianet's request to stall the application because it was considered unjust but because the regulations the request was based on have been changed. In administrative procedures, a trial is being opened once. As the result of the case filed by bianet and the reactions of the public, the administration understood that the regulations were contrary to the law and amended them.

The lawyer pointed to the changes in the regulation: The obligation to choose one of the four [filter] profiles has been removed. Furthermore, it was decided that a delegation of ten experts defines the contents of the internet packages. In the previous regulation the BTK could act the way they wanted.

Altinparmak announced to file another case against the amended regulation that is going to be enforced on 22 November. He also said that they were going to claim the cost of the previous trial from the administration.

If this trial should be rejected as well, they will apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the lawyer indicated.

To summarise:

• The original August 22nd 2011 implementation did not go ahead after legal challenge by ISP Bianet
• The government watered down the website blocking proposals a bit and delayed the implementation until 22nd November 2011
• Bianet are still not happy and will launch another legal case ahead of the 22nd November implementation date

A recent decision by Lebanon's National Audiovisual Media Council (NAMC) is catching a lot of flak. The council called for all news websites to register with it starting November 1, prompting fears the move is both illegal and a move to censorship.

In an interview with NOW Lebanon, Abdel-Hadi Mahfouz, head of the 10-member NAMC, claimed the council merely wants to get an idea of the electronic media landscape in the country prior to passing a new law that would extend media control to include online publications.

Mahfouz told NOW Lebanon that both news websites and blogs should register, after which details would be hammered out on how the two should be regulated in the future. He added that failure to register could result in the site being banned.

Ayman Mhanna, executive director of the press-freedom-promoting SKEyes Center, said he feared censorship was the main goal of the initiative and lamented what he called the council's past dismal record of speaking up when journalists were beaten or intimidated as well as the council's lack of explanation for its recent decision. Mhanna said:

Also, there are deep flaws in the decision . There's absolutely no clarity in terms of what they mean by 'news websites.' I really think that they themselves don't know the difference between official news websites, blogs, citizen journalism platforms [and the like].

Change and Reform bloc MP Ghassan Moukheiber, who authored a new media law that would address electronic media and is currently under review in parliament, also questioned the decision, highlighting what he called its complete illegality.

Moukheiber and Mhanna said that the current 1994 law does not mention electronic media at all, and therefore it, and the council it created, has no legal authority to regulate websites.

Moukheiber said: This decision is not only [legally incorrect] but dangerous. Although it looks benign, legally [registration would be] a de facto recognition that electronic media are subject to the [1994] law.

Iran's football federation has imposed indefinite bans on two players for their immoral acts during goal celebrations.

The incidents, condemned by officials and commentators alike, took place during a league match between Persepolis Tehran and Damash Gilan, broadcast live on national television.

Footage on YouTube shows Persepolis defender Mohammad Nosrati pinching his teammate Sheys Rezaei's bottom as they celebrated a goal.

Rezaei, another YouTube video shows, squeezed an unidentified teammate during another goal celebration later in the game.

An Iranian actress has been sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes for her role in a film about the country's artistic repression.

Marzieh Vafamehr was arrested appearing in My Tehran for Sale , which came under harsh criticism in conservative circles.

The film, produced in collaboration with Australia, tells the story of a young actress in Tehran whose theatre work is banned by the authorities. She is then forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically.

The Fars news agency said the movie had been banned in Iran and was being distributed in the country illegally. The makers had also not been given permission to film in Tehran

Marzieh Vafamehr's lawyer has appealed the sentence.

Update: As Recommended by Iran

14th October 2011. See  article from  voxy.co.nz

My Tehran for Sale , an Australian film critical of Iran, will screen on New Zealand's Maori Television following reports its lead actress has been sentenced to jail and 90 lashes.

Directed by Iranian-Australian Granaz Moussavi and produced by Adelaide-based Cyan Films, My Tehran for Sale , tells the story of a young actress in contemporary Tehran whose stage work was banned by authorities She meets an Australian-Iranian actor at an underground rage who offers her a chance for a new life free from oppression.

The film was never intended for release in Iran, but has been distributed illegally and condemned by the country's conservative commentators.

My Tehran for Sale screens on Maori Television on Saturday 5th November at 9.30pm.

Update: Spared the Rod

29th October 2011. From  truthdive.com

Iranian actress Marzieh Vafemehr has been spared 90 lashes and further imprisonment for her role in the South Australian film My Tehran for Sale , Amnesty International has stated.

We are extremely pleased to hear that Marzieh has been released without being subjected to the cruel and degrading punishment of flogging, but the crackdown on filmmakers continues in Iran, the Herald Sun quoted Amnesty International's Campaigns Manager, Hannah Harborow, as saying.

Marzieh seems to have been released after an appeal court reduced her imprisonment to three months and overturned the flogging sentence on Monday night, Harborow added.

Three young film-makers are still in detention a week after being arrested for posting a film about poverty in Saudi Arabia on the internet.

Feras Boqna, Hussam al-Drewesh and Khaled al-Rasheed were detained for questioning in Riyadh three days after uploading their 10-minute film, called We are Being Cheated, to the site, the Riyadh-based Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association said.

The film exposed the dire poverty of Saudis who have not benefited from the kingdom's vast oil wealth.

Although the film's scenes, interviews and comments are all considered familiar to the majority of Saudi society the Riyadh-based Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association said, the producers have breached new Saudi media regulations that enable the government to close or fine publications that hurt the kingdom's stability or insult Islam.

An Iranian appeal court in Tehran has upheld film director Jafar Panahi's sentence to six years in jail, and a twenty-year ban on filmmaking.

Charges against the award-winning director were summarised by state media as: acting against national security and propaganda against the regime .

With the ban now in-place, the filmmaker's This is not a Film , which premiered at Canne Film festival, may be his last work for two decades. The handheld-shot documentary covers Panahi's struggle with censorship whilst being prosecuted.

Update: London Film Festival

27th October 2011. From  littlewhitelies.co.uk

This is Not a Film is thoughtful, inviting and not at all preachy or didactic. It is truly a video postcard, though a potentially contentious one having been smuggled to the 2011 London Film Festival via a memory stick. Still, it stands up a testimony to the defiance against censorship and towards this man's desire to tell stories, in whatever format he is able to.

Offsite: Update

28th March 2012.  See  article from  guardian.co.uk

Jafar Panahi's This Is Not A Film demonstrates by the simple fact of its existence that the political oppression of difficult artists -- a tradition as ancient and venerable as art itself -- is alive and well in modern Iran. No surprises there, perhaps, but more encouragingly it also shows that Iranian responses to being silenced are as inventive as any ever developed by film-makers in repressive regimes. Given the formal and stylistic adventurousness of many movies made under arduous political circumstances, you might even argue that a bracing dose of aggressive censorship and brutal repression can sometimes do wonders for a director's formal and intellectual development.

...Read the full article

Police in Tunis used tear gas to try to disperse hundreds of muslim extremists who were attacking them with stones, knives and batons.

The Islamists were protesting a decision to broadcast animated film Persepolis which they said denigrated Islam. They were also protesting against a ban on women who wear the niqab, or full-face veil, enrolling in university.

This was the biggest clashes over religion in the Tunisian capital for several years.

Update: TV Channel Chief Firebombed

15th October 2011. See  article from  telegraph.co.uk

Tunisian extremists have firebombed the home of a TV station chief. About a hundred men, some of whom threw Molotov cocktails, lay siege to the home of Nabil Karoui, the head of the private television station Nessma late on Friday, the station reported in its evening news bulletin.

Sofiane Ben Hmida, one of Nessma's star reporters, told AFP the station chief was not at home when the attack on his house took place. But his wife and children were. About 20 of the protesters had managed to get inside. The family managed to get out the back and are safe. The attackers wrecked the house and set it on fire.

Interior ministry spokesman Hichem Meddeb told AFP around a hundred people had turned up outside the house, forced their way inside, broken the windows and torn out two gas pipes. Five people had been arrested, he added.

This was the most serious incident yet in an escalating series of protests against the station's broadcast of Persepolis on October 7. The globally acclaimed animated film on Iran's 1979 revolution 'offended' many Muslims because it depicts an image of God as an old, bearded man.

Earlier on Friday, police fired tear gas at demonstrators as some of the protests against the station degenerated. The main demonstration began peacefully at a central Tunis mosque after Friday prayers, with men and women chanting slogans against Nessma. Thousands of people, many of them Salafist Muslims, were present.

Karoui has already  apologised for having broadcast the film.

Update:  3000 Protest in defence of freedom of expression

17th October 2011. See  article from  monstersandcritics.com

Around 3,000 people peacefully demonstrated in the capital of Tunisia Sunday in defence of freedom of expression, two days after a violent protest against the broadcast of an animated and supposedly blasphemous film Persepolis .

The demonstration was meant as a riposte after the violent protests that followed the broadcast last week by Nessma TV, a private channel, of the film about the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution.

The film by French-Iranian director Marjane Satrapi, based on the autobiographical graphic novels of the same name, show the author as a young girl chafing under the clampdown on civil liberties and discussing her frustrations with God.

We're demonstrating against extremism, for freedom of expression, including artistic freedom, Semia Mahfoudh, a high school teacher, who attended Sunday's demonstration, told dpa. She said she feared that if Ennahda came to power, Tunisia's tradition of secularism and commitment to gender equality would be jeopardized.

Aden Live
27 October 2010 to 16 November 2010

Aden Live is a general entertainment service broadcast in Arabic by Dama Ltd, a company based in the UK. The service is aimed at the people of South Yemen and includes programmes based on news, political views, South Yemeni culture and entertainment. It can be received in the Middle East and some parts of Europe by satellite, but it is not on the Sky Electronic Programme Guide and cannot be received in the UK on normal satellite equipment. At the time of the complained about Broadcasts, it was also streamed on the internet.

Background

In 1990 North and South Yemen were united to form the Republic of Yemen ( Yemen ), and Ali Abdullah Saleh became president of Yemen. The capital of Yemen is Sanaa (sometimes spelt Sana ). Aden is a city and governorate in the south of Yemen.

Complaint

In October 2010 Ofcom received a complaint made on behalf of the Government of Yemen about the service Aden Live. In summary, the complaint stated that the channel is encouraging Yemeni nationals in southern Yemen to revolt against the Government of Yemen and to divide the nation into separate states. It stated that the channel was spreading hatred and calling for attacks on government regional offices, the police and the national army; and its content was affecting the civil peace and stability of Yemen.

Having viewed the Broadcasts and the transcripts, Ofcom considered that some of the content of the Broadcasts raised potential issues under the Code and warranted investigation. Ofcom consider rules:

• Rule 2.4 Programmes must not include material (whether in individual programmes or in programmes taken together) which, taking into account the context, condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage others to copy such behaviour.

• Rule 3.1 Material likely to encourage or incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder must not be included in television or radio services.

• Rule 5.4 Programmes in the services (listed above1 ) must exclude all expressions of the views and opinions of the person providing the service on matters of political and industrial controversy and matters relating to current public policy (unless that person is speaking in a legislative forum or in a court of law). Views and opinions relating to the provision of programme services are also excluded from this requirement.

• Rule 5.11 In addition to the rules above, due impartiality must be preserved on matters of major political and industrial controversy and major matters relating to current public policy by the person providing a service (listed above2 ) in each programme or in clearly linked and timely programmes.

• Rule 5.12 In dealing with matters of major political and industrial controversy and major matters relating to current public policy an appropriately wide range of significant views must be included and given due weight in each programme or in clearly linked and timely programmes. Views and facts must not be misrepresented.

Ofcom Decision: Breaches of Rules 2.4, 5.4, 5.11 and 5.12

It is not within Ofcom's remit to take a view on the legitimacy or otherwise of the policies and actions of the Southern Movement or those opposed to the Yemeni government. However, in Ofcom's view, material which condones or glorifies death in support of a cause, revolt against a government and the carrying of weapons can reasonably be considered material which condones or glamorises violent or dangerous behaviour.

Given that Dama directs its broadcasts predominantly to a South Yemeni audience, many of whose members (given the political context set out above) are likely to support the Southern Movement and oppose the Government of Yemen, Ofcom considered that the material in examples could reasonably be considered as material likely to encourage others to copy violent or dangerous behaviour.  Ofcom noted Dama's comment that the carrying of arms by tribespeople is common in Yemen … and there are likely to be far more guns than people in Yemen . Ofcom considers that, while this context may to some extent account for the prevalence of references to arms in the examples, it made it more likely that the material would have encouraged others to carry weapons. In light of the above, we concluded that the material was in breach of Rule 2.4.

However Ofcom found that the example content was not likely to incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder and so did not breach Rule 3.1.

Dama accepted that in relation to the requirement for due impartiality, on two occasions, the presenters may have strayed a little from their roles as presenter. Presenters may express their own views on matters of political controversy within the limits of the Code. However alternative viewpoints must be appropriately represented. Accordingly, Ofcom considered that the Broadcasts as a whole (as translated and transcribed for Ofcom), due impartiality was not preserved on matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy, and an appropriately wide range of significant views was not included and given due weight. Ofcom therefore considered that for the reasons given above the Broadcasts breached Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Code.

The views and opinions of the Licensee on the contemporaneous political situation in Yemen, including the policies and actions of the Government of Yemen could reasonably be identified from the material and representations. These views and opinions were in turn expressed in different ways and to varying degrees in the output of the channel, contrary to the requirements of Rule 5.4. Ofcom therefore considered that the relevant material was in breach of Rule 5.4 of the Code.

Ofcom Considering Sanctions

The right to broadcast comes with responsibilities. It is important that broadcasters do not use their licensed service to condone or glamorise violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour, or fail to maintain due impartiality on matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy, in contravention of the Code.

Dama has assured Ofcom that it is now well aware of the need for due impartiality in its broadcasts, and is taking steps to address this going forward . However Ofcom considered Dama's contraventions of the Code to be serious. Dama is therefore put on notice that these contraventions of the Code are being considered by Ofcom for statutory sanction.

Two books by American authors are currently on trial in Turkey on obscenity charges which could lead to imprisonment for their publishers and translators.

The publisher and translator of the Turkish translation of The Soft Machine by William Burroughs are on trial with the latest hearing held on 11 October. The case was brought following an investigation by the Board for Protection of Minors from Obscene Publications. The Board pronounced the book as not compatible with the morals of society and the people's honour , injurious to sexuality and generally repugnant .

In September 2011, another publisher and translator were told that they will be brought to trial, also on charges of obscenity under Article 266, this time for the Turkish translation of a contemporary work, Snuff , by American writer Chuck Palahniuk. The book had been brought before the Board for the Protection of Children from Obscene Publications in May 2011 which judged that there were grounds for indictment. The publisher was also accused of releasing the book, without warning and with no precautions to ensure that children did not read it. If found guilty, the owner of the Ayrinti Publishing House, Hasan Basri Ciplak and the book's translator, Funda Uncu, could be imprisoned for between six months and three years.

PEN Turkey has protested the decision to press charges against the publishers of the book, and nominated Snuff as the Centre's Book of the Month in reaction to the accusation.

The book, published in 2008 to mixed reviews, is a satire on the American pornography industry. The Board has deemed the book as immoral. In her defence, translator Uncu pointed out that Palahniuk is a world-renowned author and argued that rather than being pornography, the book is a critique of the commoditisation of women .

...English Pen makes a call for action against these prosecutions. See  details from  englishpen.org

The Lebanese Government has banned an Iranian documentary showing the violence leading up to the 2009 presidential elections from being screened at the Beirut Film Festival, along with the man who made it.  The coalition government in Lebanon is led by Hezbollah, which is a strong ally of the Iranian regime.

Nader Davoodi's Red, White and the Green was to be screened at the Middle East Documentary Film Competition.

Lebanese censorship authorities on 7th October informed us we would have to pull Iranian director Nader Davoodi's film Red, White and the Green from our programme. Colette Naufal, director of the Beirut International Film Festival was also informed that Davoodi would not be allowed to travel to Lebanon.

Iranian Kurdish filmmaker Ibrahim Al-Saaidi, director of Mandoo, was also unable to attend the festival due to unspecified travel difficulties, added Nafaul.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is delighted that the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to renowned Yemeni press freedom activist Tawakul Karman, Chairwoman of Women Journalists Without Chains.

Tawakul Karman's selection for the Nobel Peace Prize not only recognizes her relentless battle for a free press in Yemen but also highlights the free flow of information as vital for peaceful and democratic societies, said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. We rejoice with Karman and hope that this prize helps to shed light on the targeting of journalists which continues to plague the Arab world.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.

They were recognised for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work .

Mrs Sirleaf is Africa's first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the censorship of two newspapers in the past four days, the first instances of their kind since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak in February. Production of the Saturday edition of the independent weekly Sawt al-Umma was halted, while the daily Rose al-Youssef was prevented from printing a page in today's paper that was to feature a controversial story.

The military government has revived Mubarak-era repression, said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. These two instances of censorship have been preceded by the closing of a news bureau, the interrogation of journalists, and other instances of press restrictions and intimidation.

Al-Ahram printing house, which publishes the semi-official daily Al-Ahram and other newspapers, told Sawt al-Umma editors that it was halting production of its Saturday edition because of the paper's story on Mubarak's ongoing trial, news reports said. Sawt al-Umma was a frequent target of harassment under Mubarak's regime, CPJ research shows.

The Rose al-Youssef article that offended described an alleged Israeli spy once stationed in Cairo.