The Beirut-based news outfit Menassat has closed after its Dutch backers Free Voice withdrew funding support.

The closure brings to an end two years of quality journalism at Menassat which built a reputation for monitoring and investigating Arab media news.

In a statement posted on its website, Menassat’s staff said they were given less than 24 hours notice of the closure.

The Middle East online news site Menassat is facing an uncertain future today after its leading funder threatened to pull out.

Menassat reporters were considering their options on Wednesday as the company’s Dutch backers, Free Voice were reviewing whether it would fund for another month.

According to Menassat staff, Free Voice – a media advocacy group that supports press freedoms and balanced journalism in the Middle East – had long running financial concerns, following irregularities surrounding a former CEO.

He’s widely tipped to be the next President of Egypt. He’s the policy chief in the ruling National Democratic Party (the NDP). And now he’s talking to Egyptians directly through the social web.

Today Gamal Mubarak, son of incumbent President Hosni Mubarak, will address questions posted on Facebook through a live video webcast.

It’s all part of an effort to build Mubarak junior’s credibility and support base, ahead of any future tussle for the presidency.

As a broadcasting tool connecting individuals with established reputations to maintain, Twitter has a powerful potential for social change.

And so it proved in Iran – where Twitter once again came into its own as a vehicle for documenting events with utterly compelling immediacy and – initially at least – authenticity.

But for all that has been written and said about Twitter in Iran over the past week, the success it has enjoyed has been short lived.

Gaza-based Photojournalist Eman Mohammed has been blocked from leaving the strip to attend a London-based peace ceremony.

Mohammed had been due to travel to the UK with three other Gaza journalists after being nominated to receive an award for her reporting of the recent conflict in the strip.

The reporter received a phone call on Thursday telling her she would not be able to attend the 2009 International Media Council Awards organized by the Next Century Foundation.

Google has admitted it faces major challenges in widening access to the internet in the Arab World.

Limited infrastructure and language problems in the Middle East hinder access to the best of what the web has to offer, the search engine said in launch post of the Google Arabia blog.

With just one percent of all internet content in Arabic, Middle East audiences still have some way to go before they can enjoy the breadth of content other language communities have access to.