BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Qatari newspaper Gulf Times website on 1 January The Al-Jazeera Documentary Channel will celebrate its first anniversary today, with the broadcast of the 24-hour channel's first in-house produced documentary. Launched on 1 January 2007, with the concept of humanity, environment and the …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Saudi newspaper Arab News website on 1 January [Report by Ebtihal Mubarak in Jedda: "Blogger Does Not Face Security Charges: Ministry"] The Interior Ministry confirmed yesterday that Saudi blogger Fouad Al-Farhan was being held for "interrogation". Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, the spokesperson …

BBC Monitoring Iraqi Kurdish journalists have said that they did not expect many changes in the Kurdistan Journalists' Syndicate management board, Rozhnama daily of Wisha Company run by former Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) deputy leader Nawshirwan Mustafa reported on 27 December. The journalists' claim came as the KJS was …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in Pashto, "Abdol Karim Khorram meets acting Iranian ambassador", published by state-owned Afghan newspaper Hewad on 29 December Minister of Information and Culture Mohammad Karim Khorram met Mr Mohyeddin Najafi, the acting ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the other day. The acting Iranian …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Sudanese newspaper Sudan Vision website on 26 December Sudanese Journalists General Union has announced its absolute condemnation of the detention of a host of Journalists by Sudan People's Liberation Army [SPLA] in the area of Mulbuk of Upper Nile [State] while they …

BBC Monitoring Text of press release by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on 18 December New York, 17 December, 2007: The president of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said today that he will reject a restrictive new press bill that was approved by the regional parliament on …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by populist Sudanese newspaper Al-Watan on 18 December The chairman of the board of directors of Al-Madd al-Jadid newspaper issued by the [former rebel] Sudan People's Liberation Movement's [SPLM] northern sector and the sector's information secretary, Deng Goj, has said that the Press and Publications …

BBC Monitoring Analysis by Steve Metcalf of BBC Monitoring on 17 December After six weeks of emergency rule, Pakistan's private television channels have been quietened but not completely silenced. There have been contradictory official statements about exactly what they are, and are not, allowed to broadcast. But the government appears …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Saudi state-owned official news agency SPA website Mina, 17 December: Prince Turki Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz, the assistant minister of culture and information, said the media plan for this year's hajj season is going perfectly as it is planned. He pointed out …

BBC Monitoring Text of editorial entitled: "Al-Jazeera TV scandalous opinion polls: 'For or against attacks" published by Algerian newspaper Liberte website on 17 December Praising terrorism continues to be one of the main editorials of the Qatari TV station Al-Jazeera. After having broadcast programmes on the origin of terrorism in …