“Criminal defamation laws are a potent weapon for those in Lebanon who want to silence criticism and debate about pressing social and human rights issues,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East ...

Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. He has covered human rights and extremism extensively. Sean joined Newsweek in ...

But in most of Asia, and much of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, defamation is in some circumstances a crime, as it is in Canada and 23 members of the European Union.

In most of these countries, these laws tended to penalize religious hate speech rather than defamation of religion. In the Middle East and North Africa, by contrast,15 of the 20 countries (75%) had ...

Eight-in-ten countries in the Middle East-North Africa region have laws against blasphemy, apostasy or defamation of religion, the highest share of any region. These penalties are enforced in 60% of ...

Unsurprisingly, he sees the situation quite differently from Mayouf: “In America, yes, we have free speech, but we also have laws against defamation and you can’t just say any false thing you ...

The Middle East appears to be the hottest legal market around, but wherever firms decide to place their eggs in 2025, geopolitical concerns loom large, writes The Global Lawyer.

Middle East category Three people reported killed and dozens wounded near aid site in Gaza, medics say June 2, 2025 ANALYSIS For Syria, Qatar's $7 billion power plan hinges on fixing its grid ...

In July, Tangkilisan and his lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, petitioned the Constitutional Court to revoke provisions of the internet law, including article 27 on criminal defamation.