MIDDLE EAST: No countries for old journalists

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These have not been good times for journalists in the Middle East.

As Ashraf Khalil reports from Jersualem, Israeli authorities are threatening to shut down at least tighten up on the operations of Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news channel.

Of course Iran continues its long-standing violation of journalists’ rights to practice their trade. According to media advocacy groups, intelligence services are holding Afghan journalist Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of a magazine called, ‘Women’s Rights,’ in the city of Qom, denying him access to lawyers.

But even libertine Kuwait recently punished two newspapers by stripping them of their licenses. And both Algeria and Tunisia have recently arrested or roughed up journalists.

In Iraq, possibly the deadliest place for journalists ever, Shihab al-Tamimi, head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, died Feb. 27 from gunshot wounds he’d sustained in an earlier assassination attempt.

Meanwhile, the French daily Le Monde‘s Cecile Hennion is recovering from stab wounds she got while in her hotel room on assignment in northern Iraq. Apparently the attack on the 33-year-old wasn’t politically motivated. But it goes to show the risks reporters take to get the story.

Walid al Omary, the Jerusalem bureau chief of Al Jazeera, is taking his latest setback in stride. Facing criticism for its conduct during the Lebanon war, Israel also blamed the media.

‘Whenever they get in trouble, they complain about Jazeera,’ he told Khalil.

Al Jazeera has also run afoul of authorities in Iraq, Iran and Jordan. ‘We have problems with every regime in the Middle East,’ he said. ‘That proves we are doing our jobs.’

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut