BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Thai newspaper The Nation website on 16 January Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont admitted Wednesday [16 January] that his government is still in the dark about the leasing of a satellite channel by Thaicom to the Hezbollah-backed television channel al-Manar. Surayud said his …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Saudi-owned leading pan-Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat website on 10 January [Report by Isam Fadl, from Cairo: "Bush's Scheduled Visit to Egypt Ignites Disputes Within the Journalists Association"] The scheduled visit by US President George Bush to Egypt has ignited disputes within the new council …

BBC Monitoring By Saeed Barzin of BBC Monitoring on 10 January It is not yet clear what happened when Iranian Revolution Guards speedboats intercepted US naval vessels near the southern Iranian coast on 6 January. Iran and the US have both released short edited videos of the incident but their …

BBC Monitoring The United States Treasury Department announced on 9 January that it was to blacklist the Iraqi Al-Zawraa satellite TV channel, which it alleged was "fuelling" insurgent activity in Iraq. The Treasury also blacklisted the station's owner Mishan al-Juburi, the former Iraqi MP and leader of the Sunni Front …

BBC Monitoring Text of interview by Bewar Chomani from Arbil entitled: "Zagros TV director: To date, nobody has voiced any complaints about our programmes, and nobody has interfered in our affairs"; published by independent Iraqi Kurdish newspaper Hawlati on 6 January In an exclusive interview, Zagros TV Satellite Channel Dr …

BBC Monitoring Analysis by Muhammad Shokry of BBC Monitoring on 9 January Arriving on the scene less than three years ago, Egyptian bloggers have made their presence felt through their posts and their active involvement in political life. They have published videos which expose alleged human rights violations, and some …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Iranian English language news channel Press TV website on 8 January [Female presenter Touria Ghaffari] Iran has dismissed US claims that Iranian boats harassed American warships in the Persian Gulf waters over the weekend. The Iranian Foreign Ministry says that contrary to …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Kamaran Abda Salih from Raniya headlined: "A new Kurdish website founded", carried by Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan-funded daily Aso on 8 January A new website called Kurdistan4Press [www.Kurdistan4press.com] has been launched in three languages, namely Kurdish, Arabic and Turkish. The main office of …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Paris-based media freedom organization Reporters Sans Frontieres on 7 January Reporters Without Borders is disturbed to learn that state-owned printing companies that print half of Algeria's privately-owned newspapers were placed under direct government control on 5 January. "The government has reinforced its surveillance of …

BBC Monitoring An Afghan newspaper calls for improving relations between the media and government bodies. It says the shortage of professional journalists is creating problems for the media and urges the media outlets to take into account the national interests while reporting. It also says the year 2007 was the …