Middle East Today: Killing Off an "Independent" Egyptian News Site

See also Syria Today: The Debate Over Chemical Weapons
Saturday's Syria Today: A Chemical Weapons "Game-Changer"?

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Egypt: Mubarak Appeal for Release Rejected

The Criminal court has rejected former President Hosni Mubarak's second appeal for his release from prison, during the investigation of charges of illicit gain from his position.

The court ordered Mubarak to remain in detention for 15 days while the charges are investigated.

Libya: Gunmen Surround Foreign Ministry

A military official says about 200 armed men are surounding the Foreign Ministry building in Tripoli, demanding the ministry reform and hire former fighters who helped overthrow the Qaddafi regime.

Esam al-Naas said 38 trucks, some mounted with machineguns, were around the Ministry. The protesters allege that many supporters of the Qaddafi regime are still occupying senior positions in the ministry and its missions abroad.

Al-Naas said negotiations with the protesters are underway and that no one has entered the ministry building.

Iraq: Authorities Suspend Al Jazeera

The Communications and Media Commission has suspended the licences of 10 satellite television channels, including Al Jazeera, beyond they "adopted language encouraging violence and sectarianism".

Sharqiya, a leading channel in Iraq, is among the outlets barred from covering events or moving personnel around the country.

The ban comes amid escalating, mainly-Sunni protests against the Government and five days of clashes between security forces and demonstrators in northern Iraq that have killed at least 215 people.

Egypt: Mubarak Appeal Behind Closed Doors

A judge has barred the media from today's appeal by former President Hosni Mubarak against detention while charges of making illicit gains using his position are being pursued.

Even if he wins the appeal, the 84-year-old Mubarak will not be released, as he still faces detention in two other corruption cases.

Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison in June 2012 of charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during the January-February 2011 uprising that toppled him. The conviction was overturned on appeal, however, and Mubarak faces a retrial this spring.

Israel: Debate on Extending Detention of "Security Suspects"

A committee of the Knesset will debate tomorrow over extension of an emergency law that allows security suspects to be detained for longer periods that prescribed by law, before they are brought before a judge or given access to a lawyer.

Egypt: President Meets Judiciary

President Morsi has invited all heads of judicial bodies to meet with him on Sunday to discuss a resolution for ongoing disputes over the future of the country's judiciary.

The Muslim Brotherhood, of which Morsi is a member, and other Islamist groups have been calling on the Shura Council to pass a law reducing judges' retirement age from 70 to 60.

In the latest clash, the National Conscience Front, largely consisting of Islamist figures, lambasted veteran judge Ahmed El-Zend, a fierce opponent of Morsi, for "demanding foreign interference".

Israel: Officials --- No Charges Against Israeli Soldiers Under Agreement with Turkey

Israeli officials have said that a deal between Israel and Turkey, over the May 2010 incident in which Israel's commandoes killed nine Turkish civilians on a Gaza-bound flotilla, will prevent Turkish citizens from filing criminal charges against Israel Defense Forces soldiers and officers.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally apologised to Ankara over the incident, and talks have followed on reparations to families of the victims. Another round of discussions is scheduled this week.

Israel: Air Force Hits Gaza Targets

Israeli aircraft struck three claimed sites of the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza early this morning.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was responding to rocket fire: "The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians, and will not allow for a return to the reality before Pillar of Defense [the eight-day war in Gaza in November] where Israeli civilians are threatened."

Egypt: The Shutdown of the Egypt Independent News Site

On Thursday, the leading English-language news site Egypt Independent shut down after four years in operation.

Staff said the management of the Al-Masry Media Corporation abruptly closed the site, ordering a last-minute stoppage of publication on Wednesday "after scrutinizing the issue’s content". The journalists subsequently put out a final issue on the Web.

In a final article, editor Lina Attalah set out the mission of the Independent and the challenges it faced:

How can we navigate through the rigidity of the journalistic form? How can we narrate a story through our multilayered subjectivities? How do we emancipate ourselves from predetermined notions of representation?

How do we create affect? How do we engage? How do we afflict? How do we comfort? How do we become active mediators as opposed to silent vehicles of information?

We didn’t develop full answers, but kept asking and investing in a practice that constantly activated these questions.

At moments we did well. At others we failed. But we knew we wanted to continue, despite repeated threats of closure.

Attalah then described how threat became reality, through a note left with the office receptionist:

Abdel Moneim Saeed, the new chairperson of the Al-Masry Media Corporation board, said closing Egypt Independent, which he argued had only constituted a financial burden on the institution, was a measure of his capacity as “a surgeon who has to conduct the fine operation of letting go of the child in order for the mother to survive.”