Mideast Wire On August 22, the Palestinian-owned Al Quds Al Arabi daily carried the following report by Bassam Al-Badareen: "No one in Jordan knows the reason behind the sudden disease which affected the first private television channel in the history of the country. The channel was supposed to start airing …

BBC Monitoring In its 2200 gmt news bulletin's "Issue of the Night" programme, Al-Jazeera TV on 22 August discussed the independence of the press in the Arab Maghreb countries. The programme interviewed in the studio Tawfek Bouchrine, chief editor of the independent Moroccan newspaper Al-Massa, via satellite from Tripoli journalist …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 23 August [Presenter] The minister of information and culture has accused some independent media sources of exploiting freedom of speech. Abdol Karim Khoram has not named any specific media source, but said a number of them have used freedom …

BBC Monitoring Overview Despite boasting about democracy and freedom of expression, the Algerian state continues to control the country's heavy media, radio and television, on which no dissenting voice is allowed expression. This has led many Algerians to desert the country's TV - which they dub the "orphan one" - …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Sudanese Islamist opposition newspaper Akhir Lahzah website on 21 August Trial broadcasts for the first radio station in Sudanese history specializing in medical affairs, Al-Sihhah Wal-Hayat FM [health and well being], are due to begin within the next few days. The station's slogan will …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post website on 22 August [Report by Herb Keinon: "Iranians send love and hate emails to Israel"] The "Dear Israel" emails steadily flowing into the foreign ministry since the inception of a Persian-language internet site last month range …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Quds Press web news agency ["Al-Sadr Office Denies its Leader Granted Interview to British Paper" - Quds Press] Baghdad, 21 Aug (Quds Press) - The Al-Sadr Office has denied that Muqtada al-Sadr granted an interview to the British daily The Independent. Ahmad al-Shaybani, spokesman …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 21 August [Presenter] The majority of media bodies and media officials have expressed concerns over amendments to the law on mass media activities by the Senate. The law was sent to the Senate after being approved by parliament almost …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat website on 19 August The director of the BBC Global News Division, Richard Sambrook, said that the plan to launch a news channel at the end of this year is not aimed to compete with Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera channels with …

BBC Monitoring A hacker (or a group of hackers) who signs himself "sniper" and operates a blog by the name of "Virtual Jihad" (http://www.vjihad.parsiblog.ir/) has pledged to rid the Iranian blogosphere of "offending" blogs. The first post on Virtual Jihad is a list of "strikes", which consists of dates (starting …