Egypt
Minister of Irrigation prohibits giving press statements
On 11 June, the Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources prohibited all the ministry’s staff and employees from releasing press statements to the various media outlets. He also banned communicating with external bodies or making any statements or remarks regarding the water issue in Egypt expect through the official press releases and the ministry’s official spokesman.
The “banned party newspapers” association protests against the Media Regulatory Council’s arbitrariness
The “banned party newspapers” association organized, on 11 June, a protest on the stairs outside Egypt’s Journalists Syndicate to denounce the Supreme Media Regulatory Council (SMRC)’s arbitrariness, after refraining from licensing “El-Khabar” website affiliated with the banned party newspapers, despite providing all the required documents and without giving any real reasons behind the ban or approval.
NTRA fines Vodafone Egypt EGP 10 million for service cut
Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) imposed, on 10 June, an EGP 10 million fine (approximately $60,000) on Vodafone Egypt over interrupted communication services to a large number of its customers in several areas for several hours on the third of June; pursuant to Article 18 in the licenses granted to the Company.
Egypt blacklisted by International Labor Organization regarding trade union and labor rights and freedoms
On 11 June, the UN-affiliated International Labor Organization (ILO) placed the Egyptian government in the shortlist publicly known as the “blacklist”, with respect to trade union and labor rights and freedoms. The ILO’s blacklist involves 24 countries including Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq.
********************
Tunisia
The IFJ holds its 30th Conference
For the first time in the Middle East and Africa, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) organized its 30th International Conference in the Republic of Tunisia from June 11 to June 14, in which Younis Mujahid (from Morocco) was declared president of the IFJ succeeding Belgian Philippe Laurouche.
********************
Palestine
Head of the anti-corruption commission detained for a “Facebook” post
Palestinian security forces arrested Fayez al-Sweiti, who heads a group called “Hand in Hand Toward a Homeland Free of Corruption”, after he headed to the Palestinian Attorney General’s office in the morning of 9 June upon a verbal summon he received the night before, when the Preventive Security Service raided his house and confiscated two PCs and a mobile phone in addition to some of his papers.
Al Sweiti’s has been arrested after he posted some comments on his Facebook’s personal account accusing the head of the Civil Affairs Authority of corruption and abuse of power.
********************
Sudan
Internet services cut
The Sudanese authorities have cut off landline lines in Sudan since 12 pm (June 10, the second day of the civil disobedience called by protest leaders), a week after they were cut off from mobile phones.
The spokesman for the Transitional Military Council, Shams al-Din Kabbashi, said on June 11 that the Internet connection will not be returned at the present time, claiming that the Internet “is considered a threat to the national security.”
19 children killed in Sudan since the dispersal of Khartoum Sit-in
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced on June 11 that at least 19 children have been killed in Sudan and at least 49 injured since the third of June, the date of the Khartoum Sit-in’s dispersal.
UNICEF said that it has received information that children were detained, recruited as combatants and sexually abused. Schools, hospitals and health centers were looted and destructed, and health workers were also attacked for just doing their jobs, as reported by the organization.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry summons British ambassador for his tweets
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry summoned, on 12 June, the British ambassador in Khartoum, Irfan Siddiq, to protest his remarks posted on “Twitter”, after the Sudanese security forces dispersed the sit-in in front of the General Command of the Sudanese army, as he tweeted “No excuse for any such attack. This Must Stop Now”.
The spokesman of Sudan’s foreign ministry said that the repeated tweets of the ambassador contradict “the established diplomatic norms”.
********************
Jordan
Activist Ahmed al-Naimat released
On 10 June, Amman Magistrate’s Court ordered the release of Al-Hirak activist Ahmed Naimat on bail after a month of imprisonment.
The Amman public prosecutor sentenced Naimat to prison for allegedly “prolonging the tongue and insulting an official body.”
The National Forum for the Defense of Public Freedoms calls on the King to drop the “lengthening the tongue” charge
In a press conference held at the Professional Associations Complex on June 9, Mohamed al-Bashir, president of the National Forum for the Defense of Public Freedom, called on the Jordanian king to intervene to drop and cancel the charges of “lengthening the tongue” and “undermining the regime”, asserting that such charges “do not go in line with the talk of the transition to a civil state, nor do they correspond to the royal discussion papers”.
********************
Bahrain
‘Al Wasat’ newspaper’s building demolished
On Monday, June 10, Bahraini forces demolished the headquarters of Al Wasat newspaper, the most pervasive and influential newspaper in Bahrain, two years after the retaliatory decision to suspend the publication of the newspaper and the laying off of 180 of its employees on 4 June 2017.
The demolition order by the government was to wipe out all traces of a building that bears witness to the 15-year history of “Al-Wasat” newspaper, as it previously destroyed “Dawar al-Loaloa” square yard that was a symbol of the Bahraini Revolution.
********************
Iraq
Human rights activist Hanaa Adwar run over by a car
Human rights activist Hanaa Adour was hit by a speeding car on June 14 after delivering a speech on the anniversary of the fall of Mosul City in downtown Baghdad.
Hanaa delivered a speech in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, in which she stressed the need for bringing to account those responsible for Spyker incident which claimed the lives of 1700 Iraqi fighters. She also tackled the fall of the city of Mosul at the hands of Isis.
********************
Algeria
“TSA” website blocked
Lounas Kaddam, the director of the Algerian news website Tout Sur l’Algérie (TSA) (All about Algeria) announced, on June 13, that the website has been blocked in Algeria (but it stills works outside the country) since 12 June because of its coverage of the protest movement in Algeria.
