In Saudi Arabia a female journalist has been sentenced to 60 lashes for having worked for a television network that is banned from broadcasting in the country.

The network aired a programme in July containing a Saudi man's sexual confessions. Earlier this month he was sentenced to 1000 lashes and five years in prison. Four other people involved in the programme were also sentenced to lashes and jail terms.

The Saudi-owned network, LBC, broadcasts from Lebanon, but attracts many viewers in Saudi Arabia. Although the convicted journalist was not involved in the programme, she was sentenced on the grounds that she had worked for the network while it did not have an operating licence.