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LEBANON Bahrain: Parliament's attempt to ban singer failed Bahrain's Islamist parliament members wanted to ban the Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe from performing in the country because of her sexy looks. They were not successful 05 May 2008 The Middle East: New restrictions on satellite tv Freedom of expression in the Middle East suffered a major setback on 12 February 2008 when 21 information ministers of the Arab League agreed on a new satellite tv charter 20 February 2008 Jonas Otterbeck: Islamic reactions to the music of today A working paper, 22 pages in PDF-format, to be published as a chapter in the book 'Religion, Media, and Modern Thought in the Arab World', Cambridge Scholars Press Ltd. 13 November 2007 Marcel Khalife Video interview with Marcel Khalife. 11 April 2007 Lebanon: Hip hop band's censored album debut The Beirut-based rap duo Ashekman has come up against censorship several times in its young career, reports The Daily Star, as they are about to publish their debut album 02 March 2007 3rd Freemuse World Conference on Music and Censorship 200 professional musicians, scholars, and composers from 22 countries met at the 3rd Freemuse World Conference on 25-26 November 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey 18 December 2006 Freemuse.org: Focus on artists from the Middle East Watch the new video interviews on www.freemuse.org recorded during the 'Images of the Middle East' festival which took place in Denmark in August-September 2006 30 October 2006 Clotaire K Video interview with BBC World Music Award winner Clotaire K about how he perceives music as a media 31 August 2006 The burning music question in Islam: prohibited or not? The burning music question: Music... is it or is it not allowed in Islam? Can we get it straight? 09 August 2006 Oath to Vanquish Video interview with the Lebanese Death Metal band Oath to Vanquish, recorded in July 2006 - about their music and music censorship in Lebanon 08 July 2006 Xardas Video interview with Xardas, a 24-year-old Lebanese composer and producer of Dark Ambient music who had his new release confiscated by authorities in June 2006 08 July 2006 Lebanon: “Satanic music” regarded a security issue Composer and producer of Dark Ambient music asked by authorities to sign a paper promising that he will never send or receive any packages that contain “dark” or “weird” music 15 June 2006 Freedom of musical expression in the Middle East - report “All that is Banned is Desired” summarizes the sessions and discussions held at the Conference on Freedom of Expression in Music, Beirut October 2005. 06 June 2006 Lebanon: Music producer called in for "investigation" Dark Ambient musician investigated on 2 June 2006 at the headquarter of the General Security department in Beirut, his music categorised as "satanic" and "offensive to people's morals" 01 June 2006 Beirut Conference 2005: Speech by Ali Abu Shadi At the Freemuse conference in Beriut, October 2005, Ali Abu Shadi spoke about his work as the chairman of the central Censorship Department in Egypt 29 November 2005 Beirut Conference 2005: Speech by Moe Hamzeh Moe Hamzeh, a Lebanese producer and rock musician, tells his story. He performs with his band ‘The Kordz’ every Saturday at the club Nova in Beirut, Lebanon. 29 November 2005 Conference: Freedom of expression and music in the Middle East Conference on Freedom of Expression in Music in Beirut on the 6-8th of October 2005. The first regional forum of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa. 25 November 2005 Silence is death - Censorship in the Arab world 'Freedom of Expression in Music' conference in Beirut in October 2005 posed many questions but did it reach any solutions? 31 October 2005 Lebanon: Islamic scholar rejects religious censorship of music “There is no ban on music in the Qur'an," says renowned Shaykh (Islamic scholar) from The Beirut Studies and Documentation Center 14 October 2005 Middle East: Hip-Hop on the frontline The rap form allows a powerful voice for political invective, and is being used on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict. But for Arab countries and the Middle East, the influence and performance of hip-hop lights a few fuses 02 November 2004 Shoot the Singer! Book "Shoot the Singer! Music Censorship Today". The first worldwide presentation of contemporary cases of music censorship, with cases from i.a. Burma, Mexico, Middle East, France, Algeria, Zimbabwe, USA, South Africa, Turkey. Edited by Freemuse director Marie Korpe, published by Zed Books, May 2004. 25 May 2004 Najwa Karam banned by the Lebanese Censorship Committee In March 2004, the Lebanese Surete Generale censored a video clip entitled "Why are You Emigrating?" by Najwa Karam, a well known singer. 02 April 2004 Lebanese censors seize hundreds of DVDs and three CDs Lebanese police have confiscated 600 video-DVDs and three music-CDs from a Virgin Megastore in Beirut. 10 February 2002 Marcel Khalife - the blasphemy trials The story of Marcel Khalife - accused of blasphemy in 1999 for ‘insulting religious values by using a verse from the chapter of the Holy Qur’an in a song’ 01 January 2001