MER Article Satellite Television and Development in the Middle East Upon hearing a Dutch diplomat recite a dismal litany of statistics indicating the current social and economic plight of most Middle Eastern states, a Jordanian academic heaved a sigh. “This is a triple tragedy,” she said. “Not only are the figures bad, but they have to be collated by foreign agencie Naomi Sakr • 9 min read
MER Article An Open Letter to a Jailed Iranian Writer Dear Dr. Saidi Sirjani: For almost 20 years now, I have known and admired you and your writings. Whatever your detractors may say, Ali Akbar Saidi Sirjani cannot justly be accused of partisanship. I have known you as a fierce critic of Mohammad Reza Shah’s insufferable pretensions and intolerance o Andrew Whitley • 3 min read
MER Article Gulf War Journalism John J. Fialka, Hotel Warriors: Covering the Gulf War (Woodrow Wilson Center, 1991). John R. MacArthur, Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War (Hill and Wang, 1992). Jacqueline Sharkey, Under Fire: US Military Restrictions on the Media from Grenada to the Persian Gulf (Center for Barbara Harlow • 4 min read
MER Article Document: The Mind of the Censor Gaza Ghetto, a documentary film about a Palestinian family in the occupied Gaza Strip by MERIP editor Joan Mandell and Swedish filmmakers Pea Holmquist and Pierre Bjorklund, premiered in Stockholm in November 1984. In January 1985, a Palestinian theater company in Jerusalem, El-Hakawati, purchased a (Author not identified) • 4 min read
Benvenisti, Israeli Censorship of Arab Publications Meron Benvenisti, Israeli Censorship of Arab Publications: A Survey (New York: Fund for Free Expression, 1984). Sarah J Graham-Brown • 2 min read
MER Article Western Silence on Turkey About July 20, 1983, a BBC television news crew filming outside Istanbul’s Metris prison found itself confronted by difficulties which, one of the crew said, he had never experienced even in the Soviet Union. During a subsequent flurry of messages between the crew, the British Embassy in Ankara, and David Barchard • 10 min read
MER Article From the Editors (March/April 1983) Most readers are only too familiar with the litany of harassments endured by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, from restrictions on personal freedoms to attacks on institutions and confiscation of land. Nonetheless, for the purposes of building campaigns to support Palestinian rights, The Editors • 3 min read
