The private press was making some progress and media legislation was about to be liberalised, when violence resumed at the end of the year. Now, the modest improvements are cast in doubt, and a further 'Egyptianization' of Algeria, with an authoritarian state, recurrent fundamentalist terrorism and periodic clampdowns on the press, seems to be underway. Meanwhile, Egypt itself descended further into its morass of repression of the media. Journalists were imprisoned and assaulted, newspapers were closed down in yet another year of intolerance exhibited by the Mubarak regime. The government was re-elected under highly dubious circumstances, including attacks against journalists before and during the elections.
Women suffer continued discrimination throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Along with Kuwait, Morocco , Mauritania and Bahrain , Chad is another place where journalism is persecuted by the courts. Criminal defamation is the favoured method of intimidation by the powerful in these countries. In Saudi Arabia , Libya and Iraq , the media are suffering under the harshest conditions. Conflicts between the media and the authorities do not even seep out of these countries, since the stranglehold is so complete. In Sudan , Egypt, Lebanon and Yemen , journalists and their lawyers are being persecuted on the streets as well as in the courts.