Editing Defamation (section)

====Arab region====
Libel, defamation, slander, as well as [[emergency law]]s and anti-terrorism laws, were frequently used as tools of government control on media. Emergency laws often superseded the general law. Defamation laws tended to favour those who could afford costly legal expenses.<ref name="UNESCO Arab Region Report 2018"/>

Google [[transparency report]]s<ref>{{cite web |url=https://transparencyreport.google.com/government-removals/overview |title=Government requests to remove content |website=Google Transparency Report |access-date=1 August 2023}}</ref> showed that several governments in the [[Arab region]] made requests to remove content (such as [[YouTube]] videos), based on allegations of insulting religion and defaming powerful figures.<ref name="UNESCO Arab Region Report 2018"/>

Journalists were predominantly jailed under anti-state laws, with charges ranging from spreading chaos, promoting terrorism, and inciting dissidence, to incitement against the ruling government. Charges for publishing or spreading false news were the next most frequent. Other defamation or religious insult laws were laid against journalists in several cases.<ref name="UNESCO Arab Region Report 2018"/>