Press Freedom Under Attack (literally)

At Babylon and Beyond, Borzou Daragahi laments U.S. silence in the face of increased violence against journalists in the Middle East. He tells the story of a Tunisian web journalist stuffed in a car and threatened with death for criticizing the president last week; Also last week, a Saudi cleric issued a fatwa declaring that all writers who challenge religious leaders should be fired from their jobs, flogged, and jailed.

“The U.S. gets all hot and bothered about human rights abuses and suppression of speech in places such as Iran or Syria. But it has remained relatively silent about an apparent uptick in repression of journalists among its allies in the Arab world, like the staunchly pro-American Tunisia or Saudi Arabia.”