May, 2007. Politics has become so divisive in Lebanon, on the streets and on TV screens, that the national media council chief urged the media in January to curb "tense rhetoric" that could instigate violence among the country's religious sects.[1] Lebanon was plunged into a power struggle on December 1, …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Palestinian Ma'an News Agency website Bethlehem - Ma'an: Former BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston has thanked Palestinians for their part in the campaign to get him released. Forty-five-year old Johnston was kidnapped at gunpoint by a group called the Army of Islam …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by London-based newspaper Al-Hayat website on 12 August [Report by Fathi Sabbah in Gaza] Several Palestinian forces, factions, and organizations have denounced the arrest of some Fatah Movement activists, including two movement leaders in the northern Gaza Strip, by elements of the Executive Force of …

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 Dubai Al-Arabiya Television carries at 0908 gmt on 13 August the following announcer-read report: "Al-Arabiya's correspondent in Gaza has reported that members of the Hamas-affiliated Executive Force stormed Al-Arabiya's offices and confiscated filming equipment. The correspondent said that the Executive Force confiscated a camera on the grounds that …

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 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 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 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 …