The Arab Satellite Charter is not an attempt to create an Arab version of the FCC, but rather a move to control the minds and thoughts of Arab viewers, mostly on political issues, writes Daoud Kuttab.

The Arab Satellite Charter is a potent mix of over-regulation and unclear direction where the vocabulary of modernization collides with the rhetoric of tradition, and the realities of political change conflict with the desire to preserve the status quo, write Monroe Price.

The Arab League Satellite Broadcasting Charter is not so much different than the charters of many of the world’s broadcasting networks, such as NHK, BBC, and others, argues Hussein Y.Amin.

Mideast Wire On March 6, the Saudi-owned news website Elaph reported: “Akram al-Jindi, member of the Syrian People's Assembly and owner of "Sham Channel" which was closed in Syria after which he was forced to transmit from Cairo, launched a sharp attack on Syrian officials and said the corruption circles …

Mideast Wire On March 5, the Qatari newspaper Al-Sharq carried the following report by Lubna Sha’lan: “The news satellite channel Al-Jazeera has apologized to all its viewers for utterances by the guest of last Tuesday's "The Opposite Direction" programme, which disgraced the religion of Islam and divine beliefs. The channel …

 Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo), Cairo **Updates IFEX alerts of 20 and 13 February 2008** (HRinfo/IFEX) - The following is a 5 March 2008 joint statement by HRinfo, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and 31 other organisations: 34 …

Mideast Wire Elaph, an independent Saudi owned news website, wrote on February 26: “In Saudi Arabia, when a column written by any writer or journalist is blocked by the editor in chief, then the options facing that writer are very limited: either he dumps the column in the garbage can …

Mideast Wire On February 21, the independent Al-Masry al-Yawm daily carried the following report by Osama Salah and Munir Adib: “... A number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders affirmed that the anti-terrorism law, whose draft was exclusively published by Al-Masry al-Yawm yesterday, will not prevent the group from exercising its peaceful …

Mideast Wire Ibrahime Al-Amine, chairman of the board of directors of the independent pro-opposition newspaper Al-Akhbar, wrote on February 22: “How can Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, save himself from this spider's web strangling Lebanon and the region? Up till last night, all the ideas were …

Mideast Wire On February 16, the conservative daily Keyhan carried the following commentary: “These days, the throbbing veins and the torn collars of the so-called Reformists can be observed in the 2 Khordad media and some of them are selectively exaggerating a few of Imam Khomeyni's standpoints- those which can …