The Yemeni government’s refusal to let journalists and foreign observers into the Sa‘ada governorate has helped prolong and intensify the stop-go fighting that has plagued Yemen’s mountainous north since 2004, argues Maysaa Shuja al-Deen.

The newest Persian language satellite network made a splash in the Iranian blogosphere when it began broadcasting in January. But just how far can the BBC go in the face of hostility from Tehran and without local bureaus, asks Contributing Editor Paul Cochrane.

While somewhat limited in locating middle class youth within Iranian society, Varzi’s brilliant work interrogates the relationship between ethnography and processes of fictionalization, writes Jennifer Riggan.

How can the Obama Administration rebuild American public diplomacy in the Arab World? Engaging with regional media, reforming BBG Arabic broadcasting and reducing the military role would be a good start, argues Ambassador William A. Rugh.

In an age of homogenized reporting, bloggers on both sides of the Iraq war are filling the void of personal coverage and challenging the narratives of war planners and mainstream media alike. Wayne Hunt traces this phenomenon with two case studies.

Bettina Graf gets behind the scenes at Islamonline.net, one of the world’s most popular Islamic websites, giving an in-depth look at how the site creates and issues fatwas.

Muhammad Gamal argues for more academic and professional attention to the audiovisual translation industry, which is proliferating everywhere from mobile phone screens to stadium megatrons.

American television news has largely abandoned the Middle East. Can international outlets like Al Jazeera English pick up the slack? Publisher and Co-Editor Lawrence Pintak on coverage of the Gaza conflict.

Jabbar al-Obaidi’s typology of the region’s media is a valuable contribution, writes John Measor, but imprecise analysis and failure to engage with existing scholarship undermines the work as a whole.

Hamid Dabashi gives “blood and bone” to the lives and predicaments of Iran’s filmmakers. Yet his conceptions of “realism” seem to be surrogates for aesthetic judgments, argues Farouk Mitha.