Press Freedom and Corruption in the GCC: Are There Better Future Horizons? An Analytical-Critical Study

This study seeks to provide a critical analysis of press freedom and corruption scores in the six Arab countries under the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), as reported by two international nongovernmental organizations 2013–2017: (1) Freedom House (FH) and (2) Transparency International (TI). The researcher noted how some of the reports by these organizations continually connect between press freedom and corruption. The reading might help to improve the GCC states’ future performances both in press freedom and fighting against corruption. Readings on press freedom and corruption are now more widely available in many international reports of a number of international organizations. Although standards for measuring the degree of both of them vary in these reports, they often agree on one outcome. Some of these reports have gradually gained prominence in good segments of public opinion and have become the subject of debate among intellectuals and journalists. Governments refrain from commenting on such reports particularly negative ones. However, the impact of such reports on the relevant governmental entities cannot be ignored when it comes to calibrating their practices and activities internationally and comparing them with other institutions in other regional and global countries

GCC Media Roles during the 2011 Arab Spring: An Analytical and Critical Overview

The central aim of this paper is to critically analyze the role of the media during public protests that occurred in the GCC countries during 2011. These protests were part of what came to be called the “Arab Spring”, which started in late 2010. Particular focus will be on how the Arab Spring resulted in fundamental changes and how various institutions played roles in this. The study draws on Gulf region literature about the Arab Spring in order to offer a critical and informed overview on the topic under discussion. The paper’s main question is: what are the main roles played by the GCC media (old/new) during the public protests of 2011? The paper argues that the role of the media in the 2011 protests, while important, was rather limited and affected by the unique contextual characteristics of the media environment in the GCC countries.

Malformin-A1 (MA1) Sensitizes Chemoresistant Ovarian Cancer Cells to Cisplatin-Induced Apoptosis

High-grade epithelial ovarian cancer is a fatal disease in women frequently associated with drug resistance and poor outcomes. We previously demonstrated that a marine-derived compound MalforminA1 (MA1) was cytotoxic for the breast cancer cell line MCF-7. In this study, we aimed to examine the effect of MA1 on human ovarian cancer cells. The potential cytotoxicity of MA1was tested on cisplatin-sensitive (A2780S) and cisplatin-resistant (A2780CP) ovarian cancer cell lines using AlamarBlue assay, Hoechst dye, flow cytometry, Western blot, and RT-qPCR. MA1 had higher cytotoxic activity on A2780S (IC50 = 0.23 µM) and A2780CP (IC50 = 0.34 µM) cell lines when compared to cisplatin (IC50 = 31.4 µM and 76.9 µM, respectively). Flow cytometry analysis confirmed the cytotoxic effect of MA1. The synergistic effect of the two drugs was obvious, since only 13% of A2780S and 7% of A2780CP cells remained alive after 24 h of treatment with both MA1 and cisplatin. Moreover, we examined the expression of bcl2, p53, caspase3/9 genes at RNA and protein levels using RT-qPCR and Western blot, respectively, to figure out the cell death mechanism induced by MA1. A significant down-regulation in bcl2 and p53 genes was observed in treated cells compared to non-treated cells (p < 0.05), suggesting that MA1 may not follow the canonical pathway to induce apoptosis in ovarian cancer cell lines. MalforminA1 showed promising anticancer activity by inducing cytotoxicity in cisplatin-sensitive and cisplatin-resistant cancer cell lines. Interestingly, a synergistic effect was observed when MA1 was combined with cisplatin, leading to it overcoming its resistance to cisplatin