KUWAIT, EGYPT: Censors pull plug on shows that mock politicians

Kuwaiti and Egyptian censors recently banned two television shows because they satirized prominent political figures, said the Cairo-based group the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, or ANHRI, in a statement.

According to the organization, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information banned the program "Soatak Wasal" ("Your Voice Is Heard") because it was "offensive" to Kuwaiti officials. 

The comedy makes fun of Kuwaiti officials. Apparently, a sketch mocking Kuwaiti lawmakers and Cabinet members was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Shortly afterward, Egypt clamped down on "Hokuma Show" ("Cabinet Show") after Prime Minister Ahmed Nazief was criticized in an episode. 

LEBANON: Arab lesbian magazine relaunches on the Web

Lebanon's online lesbian magazine Bekhsoos is back after a nearly one-year hiatus for almost one year.

The publication, whose Arabic name loosely translates as "Concerning," was launched as a quarterly magazine in early 2008 by members of the Lebanese lesbian group Meem and was billed as the Arab world's first publication for lesbian and bisexual women.

Back then, Bekhsoos published a mixture of news about sexual identity in the Arab world.

Now it plans to feature more investigative reports with the objective of filling "the gap of lesbian- and transgender-produced writing in the Arab world." 

IRAN: Despite newspaper closure, rape allegations continue

If Iran's rulers thought shuttering a popular reformist newspaper would end an uproar over allegations of rape and abuse of inmates inside the nation's prisons, they were sorely mistaken.

A day after authorities shuttered former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi's Ettemad Melli newspaper for publishing his letter alleging that guards brutally raped prisoners inside Iran's detention centers, the leading opposition figure defiantly broached the taboo subject.

"Your letter regarding the ugly treatment of prisoners in certain detention centers has frustrated the non-national television and the mouthpieces of the coup plotters," Mir Hossein Mousavi wrote in a letter to Karroubi that was published on numerous websites. 

"The prisoners who have been raped are required to present four just eyewitnesses. Those who have committed these offenses were the agents of the regime," he continued.

A popular reformist website, Mowjcamp.com, also reported today on another case of sexual abuse inside prison.  

SAUDI ARABIA: Closure of television station marks another censorship debate

Nearly a month after Mazen Abdul Jawad was arrested for discussing his sexual exploits on a Lebanese television station, Saudi officials closed two offices of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corportation (LBC), according to the Saudi Gazette, an English-Language daily based in the Kingdom.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Culture and Information closed the LBC's office in Abdul Jawad's hometown of Jeddah.  

On Monday, the Ministry closed the Riyadh office. 

Saudi courts have drawn up charges against Abdul Jawad and three other men who appeared in the segment. They could be charged with publicizing vice and promoting sinful behavior, which can carry both prison time and public flogging. 

Reuters reports that the charges could even carry the death penalty.

IRAN: Appeal for Greek journalist's release

The parents of detained Greek journalists Iason Athanasiadis today issued an appeal for his release in which they emphasized his love and respect for Iran, according to the Athens News Agency. 

 “His work serves no purpose other than the fair and humane coverage of life in the many countries where he has worked," Polymnia and Georgios Athanasiadis said in the statement .  “He has a particular love of Iran, and a deep respect for its cultural and religious traditions.”

Although the circumstances remain murky, Greek officials have confirmed that Athanasiadis was detained in Tehran last week while covering the outcome of the disputed Iranian election for the Washington Times.

Earlier this year, Athanasiadis was in Los Angeles to launch an exhibit of more than 50 of his documentary photographs at the Craft and Folk Art Museum called, “Exploring the Other: Contemporary Iran through the lens of Iason Athanasiadis.”

 He told the Times, "I wanted to use this opportunity to show how varied Iran is — what it's really like. A lot of people don't know that Iran is the birthplace of Sufism, the most lenient form of Islam."

The museum has joined in the appeals for Athanasiadis’ release.

“Iason sought to humanize a nation and its people largely demonized in the corporate press by living amongst Iranians, learning fluent Farsi, and respecting the culture and history of the nation,” the museum’s executive director, Maryna Hrushetska, said in a statement. “ His poignant photographs and reporting demonstrated the highest standards of journalism in a great time of media bias.”

— Amber Smith in Los Angeles

This post has been edited from an earlier version.

Image: This photograph was among those in the exhibit “Exploring the Other: Contemporary Iran through the lens of Iason Athanasiadis," which ran from January 25 - March 29, 2009 in Los Angeles. Two young snowboarders with matching scarlet highlights throw caution to the winds as they sail up the Shemshak ski-piste on a Shah-era lift in the mountains behind Tehran. Islamic regulations are more laxly enforced at holiday resorts such as Shemshak and Kish Island. Credit: 'Craft and Folk Art Museum'

IRAN: Roxana Saberi speaks, aftershocks continue

Thin and pale, but nonetheless overjoyed, Roxana Saberi today made her first public appearance since her release from prison Monday after more than three months in detention. Saberi's apparently free to leave Iran for the U.S. But the after-effects of the Iranian American journalist's arrest and stunning release from prison will continue.

Saberi appeared before reporters in front of her north Tehran apartment building for no more than a minute or two, making a brief statement:. 

"I’m of course very happy to be free and with my parents again.and I want to thank all the people all over the world -- which I’m just finding out about, really -- who, whether they knew me or not, helped me and my family during this period. I don’t have any specific plans for the moment I just want to be with my parents and my friends and relax."

MIDDLE EAST: Arabs assail new Israeli government

Perhaps no one summed up Arabs' disillusionment and frustration with the new Israeli governmentof  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman better than writer Talal Awkal in Thursday’s edition of the Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam. 

“If the outgoing government, which claimed it was committed to peace, continued building the racist Separation Wall, set up more military roadblocks, taking their number up to 650, sped up its efforts to Judaize Jerusalem, and expanded the construction of settlement housing units to unprecedented levels, what can we expect from a government of which Netanyahu and Lieberman constitute the main pillars?” Awkal wrote. 

Awkal was not alone in his wry, despondent assessment of the new Israeli team. 

Reactions from across the Arabic press show how recent statements made by Netanyahu and the controversial Lieberman have been taken as confirmation of what they describe as Israel’s expansionist agenda. 

ISRAEL: Screen artists strike

Many successful revolutions begin with a takeover of television or radio studios. This week in Israel, these weren't armed rebels interrupting a live TV broadcast, but local artists.

TV journalist Guy Zohar presents "The Day That Was", a nightly light news wrap-up program. In the country's news-heavy media, the show is refreshingly low key. The set is minimal and the lighting dim, almost intimate. Perched on a bar stool -- the only furniture on the set -- Zohar offers a slightly offbeat take on the news. 

The next item was 2008 crime stats and car thefts. "So, if you have a Subaru, you'd better chain it to a post," he was saying, when three young women barged onto the set in mid-item.

"Oh dear," said the startled host, usually understated.

The three women opened their jackets, revealing not what you think. Taped to their shirts were handwritten signs: "original productions -- or close."

ISRAEL: Pre-election press roundup

The voting  begins in just over 12 hours -- about 9 p.m. Pacific time.

Right-wing Likud party chief Benjamin Netanyahu holds a slim lead over Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's Kadima party, according to the latest polls -- slim enough that many are considering it neck-and-neck.

The once-mighty Labor Party, led by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, is a distant third and hoping to fend off ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman.

Lieberman's sudden rise is this election cycle's primary obsession. The Moldovan immigrant struck a deep chord with his call for a loyalty oath to the Jewish state by all of Israel's 1.4 million Arab citizens. 

LEBANON: The Daily Star is back on the newstands

The Daily Star is back on news stands across the country as of today.

Lebanon’s only English-language newspaper, famous throughout the Middle East, has resumed publishing after it was forced to shut down by a court order in mid-January.

“We were forced to exit, and now we are back on the highway,” the newspaper’s publisher and editor in chief, Jamil Mroue, told the Los Angeles Times.

The newspaper, which until 2006 was distributed throughout the Middle East alongside the International Herald Tribune, has been entangled in a financial crisis for months.

The shutdown was ordered last month by a court after negotiations with a Lebanese bank over a debt of $700,000 failed.

“The judge lifted the ban,” Mroue said. “There are new investors interested, and we are preparing the ground for them.”