BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Saudi newspaper Arab News website on 7 August Riyadh, 7 August: A new social affairs and marketing channel, Al-Mutahadith, was launched in Riyadh recently. Salih Abd al-Rahman Al-Abd al-Latif, director of Al-Mutahadith Company for Communication and Information Technology, signed the deal with …

BBC Monitoring Text of article by Ansar Abbasi, headlined "Nation has a near miss thanks to media hype", carried in English by Pakistan newspaper The News web site on 11 Aug ISLAMABAD: What is being generally dubbed as media speculation seems to have averted the real imposition of emergency. Even …

BBC Monitoring Text of press release by Riyadh-based media group Rotana on 8 August Riyadh, 8 August: In a move that signals the onset of large scale media consolidation in the region the Arab television networks LBCSAT and Rotana have joined forces by merging to form a new Middle East …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Yemeni newspaper Yemen Observer website on 9 August Journalists angered by restrictions imposed on the media in Yemen are naming names. At a protest Tuesday [7 August], they presented a list of the biggest violators of press freedoms and journalists in Yemen …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Nairobi-based, USAID-funded Sudan Radio Service on 9 August The editor of the Citizen Newspaper has been arrested in Juba for allegedly libeling the Government of Southern Sudan's [GOSS] Interior Minister Paul Mayom. The Citizen's editor-in-chief, Nhial Bol, was in Juba following up …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by French newspaper Liberation website on 8 August [Report by Felix Julien: "Criticizing the King Remains a Taboo in Morocco"] The person of King Muhammad VI remains a taboo subject in Morocco. For having forgot the fact, journalist Ahmed Benchemsi, editor of the magazines Nichane …

BBC Monitoring In its "Issue of Tonight" programme, 2200 gmt, 6 July 2007, Al-Jazeera Maghreb discusses the use of media by Al-Qa'idah Organisation in the Land of Islamic Maghreb, the former Salafi Group for Call and Combat, GSPC, in Algeria, following the reception of a video tape by Al-Jazeera that …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Lebanese newspaper Al-Safir website on 3 August Those working in the field of internet publishing were fighting the "ghosts" of censorship - given the lack of any Syrian law that organizes their work - when they received a blow from where they did not …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV on 7 August A Casablanca printing firm has refused to print "Journal Hebdo" weekly until it received permission from the Ministry of Communication. The paper's editor Ali Ammar described the behaviour of the printers as a pre-emptive confiscation. A special …

BBC Monitoring Islamists demanding the release of Red Mosque cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz have threatened Pakistani media over coverage of their protests at the mosque, according to Geo TV. Geo TV has also received several phone calls warning the channel to refrain from reporting about the issue. Reporters were forced …