01 April 2015

...The Facebook page of the news site elbark.com was hacked and a link to an articleabout declarations made by director of a telecommunications company was removed. In the article, elbark.com reported that Joseph Ged, director of Ooredoo Algeria, said that his company won’t advertise on media that criticize Qatar or Algeria. The news site had since recovered its Facebook page...The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s UK National Contact Point (“NCP”) concluded that surveillance company Gamma violated human rights guidelines by selling its Finfisher spyware to the repressive Bahraini regime. The watchdog’s decision followed a complaint brought by a number of human rights groups—including Privacy International and Reporters Without Borders—into Gamma’s business conduct and lack of human rights policies...The independent Jordanian news site 7iber.com, which refused to comply with a 2013 law requiring news websites to register with the government, finally relented after increased pressure on the organization. In an interview to the International Press Institute, 7iber.com editor Lina Ejeilat said that repeated blocking and a court case against the site propelled the publication to apply for a government license, which was granted in late 2014...