![President Kais Saied on Sunday fired the prime minister and froze the parliament [File:Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-26T010355Z_1569270173_RC21SO9FAUX4_RTRMADP_3_TUNISIA-POLITICS-PRESIDENT-PROFILE-1.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
The top US diplomat says Kais Saied promised him he was committed to democracy, as he urged him to restore parliament.
Freedom of the Press
![Ecuador had granted Julian Assange asylum, but revoked the status in 2019 [File: Frank Augstein/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/AP21188445007438.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Assange fled to Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to US, but his asylum status was later revoked.
![The headquarters of Al Jazeera Media Network, in Doha, Qatar [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/6N0A3834.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Al Jazeera Media Network says it views the closure of its office ‘as an attack on press freedom’.
![Tunisian military forces guard the area around the parliament building in the capital Tunis on July 26, 2021, following protests in reaction to a move by the president last night to suspend the north African country's parliament and dismiss the Prime Minister. [Fethi Belaid/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/000_9GF4PD.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Security forces involved in the raid said they were carrying out instructions and asked all journalists to leave.
![Dainik Bhaskar was raided in several locations across India [Gagan Nayar/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/000_9FM4GZ.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Move against leading Hindi-language daily Dainik Bhaskar and Bharat Samachar television channel draws criticism.
![NSO has contracts with 45 countries and says Israel's defence ministry must approve its deals [File: Kacper Pempel/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ransom.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Leaked list shows 50,000 phone numbers believed to have been chosen by clients of Israel’s NSO Group for surveillance.
![Lam is the ninth employee of the Apple Daily arrested under a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year after extensive pro-democracy protests [File: Tyrone Siu/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-21T063851Z_774782752_RC2UOO9SH98O_RTRMADP_3_HONGKONG-SECURITY.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Former executive editor-in-chief Lam Man-chung believed to be latest paper employee held under national security law.
![Thousands of people have been arrested since President Aleksandr Lukashenko's August 2020 election to a sixth term in a vote that the opposition and the West saw as rigged [File: Tatyana Zenkovich]](/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/f38faf2216de4b9b906c177453631305_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Belarusian authorities raid offices of independent newspaper Regionalnaya Gazeta and arrest three journalists.
![Since China imposed the national security law to criminalise what it considers subversion, secessionism, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces, most pro-democracy activists and politicians in Hong Kong have found themselves ensnared by it or arrested for other reasons [Tyrone Siu/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-13T121049Z_1216671931_RC2NJO91A0IA_RTRMADP_3_HONGKONG-SECURITY.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Latest move in response to China clampdown seen as symbolic as business community still wants market access.
![Siddiqui posing for a photo in Kabul, Afghanistan in this July 8, 2021 image [Mohammad Ismail/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-16T093405Z_1954713509_RC2BGO9CRMYB_RTRMADP_3_AFGHANISTAN-CONFLICT-REUTERS-1.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Pulitzer-winning Indian journalist killed while covering clash between Afghan forces and Taliban near Pakistan border.
![International media watchdogs say the Ethiopian government has cracked down on the media since conflict erupted in the Tigray region in November. [File: Ben Curtis/The Associated Press]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/AP21173404734888.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Regulator accuses outlet of advancing agenda of a ‘terrorist’ group, in a move decried by media rights organisations.
![Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad shows an FBI car guarding outside her Brooklyn apartment after federal authorities unveiled an alleged plot by Iranian intelligence agents to abduct her [Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-14T130419Z_1276723152_RC2DKO91GASP_RTRMADP_3_USA-IRAN.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Tehran has rejected federal investigators’ claim that Iranian agents planned to abduct journalist Masih Alinejad.
![Indonesian journalists face an increasing risk of violence to report the news, with four attacks reported in the city of Medan since the end of May including a fatal shooting [File: Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2020-06-10T000000Z_567783269_RC256H92JBOT_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-GLOBAL-MEDIA.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Attacks on journalists in Indonesia raise concern as media across region face repressive laws in battle to report.
![Saudi Vice Minister of Defence Khalid bin Salman met in Washington, DC, this week with top Biden administration officials [File: Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/AP20006665315767.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Khalid bid Salman is highest ranking Saudi to visit Washington since the US said MBS ordered Khashoggi’s murder.