BBC Monitoring Norooz news website (http://norooznews.ir/) was officially launched on 23 May 2007, the 10th anniversary of Mohammad Khatami's surprise, landslide election as president.     Rooz electronic daily, based in London, carried an article on the launching of the new website on the same day. The Rooz article said: "On the …

BBC Monitoring Text of press release by Paris-based organization Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) on 21 May     Reporters Without Borders today condemned yesterday's [20 May] murder in Baghdad of Ali Khalil, of the daily Al-Zaman (Time) and the kidnapping on 9 May of the journalist Salam Duhi al-Sudani.     "Less than three …

BBC Monitoring Text of report by Sudanese independent newspaper Al-Ayyam on 22 May     All parliamentary reporters yesterday boycotted the statement presented to parliament by the Ministry of Justice in protest against the use of clause 130 against newspapers.     In a statement presented to the Speaker of parliament and the head …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Palestinian Ma'an News Agency website     Qalqilya - Ma'an: Israeli forces invaded the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya on Tuesday [22 May] and forcibly closed down a local radio station, confiscating the station's computers and sound mixers. No arrests have been reported. …

WTVG-- May 17, 2007 - Al Jazeera is one of the most popular networks in the globe, but you can only see it in a few American cities, including Toledo. Viewers from around the world can question newsmakers, and so can you, if you subscribe to Buckeye Cable's digital service. …

BBC Monitoring Text of press release by Paris-based organization Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) on 18 May     The bodies of two Iraqi journalists employed by the US television network ABC, cameraman Al'a al-Din Aziz and soundman Sa'if Layth Yusuf, were found today in Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital. They had been kidnapped by …

BBC Monitoring Excerpt from report by Sudanese news agency Suna website     The Media and Communication Council of [ruling] National Congress Party has said it was determined to ensure freedom of press.     In a press statement in his office, the acting chairman of the council, Muhammad Hamud said the freedom of …

BBC Monitoring Text of report in English by Dubai newspaper Gulf News website on 18 May     An Arab human rights activist has called on Qatari media to start a public debate on press freedom that would push the authorities to amend the existing press law, which he deemed as unconstitutional. …

Without a critical cultural examination of the multiple sides of the “Arabic” and “Arab” media terrain, the fervent attachment to the production of taxonomies to describe this terrain at a time of exponential transformation may provide little more than lines in the sand, claims Editorial Board Member Adel Iskandar.

Although recent changes in information technology, especially the growth of satellite television, have had an impact on Arab media, making national borders more porous, existing national political systems are still a dominant variable affecting the structure and behavior of Arab media, argues Editorial Board Member William A. Rugh.