Press Freedom

Ukraine Media Under Attack

By Pavol Stracansky
Just hours after Ukrainian investigative journalist Tetyana Chornovil was beaten and left for dead last month at the side of the road by men she claims were acting on the orders of the country’s president, pictures of her battered and bruised face quickly made their way around the world.

Chinese Dominance in Kenyan Digital Migration Raises Alarm

By Miriam Gathigah
Controversy and confusion have marked Kenya’s transition from analogue to digital television in keeping with the 2015 International Telecommunication Union deadline when all analogue signal transmission will cease. 

Sri Lanka Faces New Year Pressure Over Rights

By Amantha Perera
When the American Centre in Colombo held a memorial event honouring the late South African President Nelson Mandela, the first few questions at the question and answer session had nothing to do with the great freedom fighter.

Free Expression Still a Mirage for Zimbabwean Artists

By Busani Bafana
That citizens cannot enjoy democracy if they are ruled by an undemocratic party is the warning that got Cont Mhlanga's play "Members" banned from theatre stages in Zimbabwe in 1985.

Some Cartoons Aren’t Funny

By A. D. McKenzie
A woman and her husband are seated at a table. As she talks, he seems to be ignoring her, his head hidden behind a newspaper.

Citizen Journalists Take the Lead on Gender Issues

By Stella Paul
Twenty-five-year-old Ragae Hammidi of Casa Blanca, Morocco wears two hats. Five days a week, she attends a business school. But on weekends, she is a journalist who goes out on the street with a small camera, shooting videos of people and issues that go untold by professional media outlets.

Kremlin Tightens Grip on Media

By Pavol Stracansky
Russia is set to lose one of its few relatively objective news outlets as the Kremlin moves to tighten its grip on the country’s media.

Drone Killings Show Numbers, Not Bodies

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
More than 300 U.S. drone attacks have killed 2,160 militants and 67 civilians in Pakistan since 2008, according to Pakistani defence ministry data. But people living in the affected areas are now questioning these figures, asking why they never get to know the names of the militants or see the bodies.

Peru’s New Cybercrime Law Undermines Transparency Legislation

By Milagros Salazar
A new law against cybercrime that restricts the use of data and freedom of information in Peru clashes with earlier legislation, on transparency, which represented a major stride forward in citizen rights.

Fears Rise of ‘Taliban-Style’ Justice in Syria

By Shelly Kittleson
Concerns are rising that courts run by Islamic clerics in many of Syria’s rebel-held areas may serve as a prelude to Taliban-style justice in what was long a violently repressive but secular state.

Libya’s Fragile Peace Cracks

By Karlos Zurutuza
Car accident in Omar Mokhtar Avenue in downtown Tripoli. Nobody was injured but there’s a bumper hanging off the back of a car. In just a few seconds, a group gathers around.

Foul Play Ahead of Russian Olympics

By Pavol Stracansky
Despite an endorsement from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their adherence to environmental standards in preparations for next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian authorities are cracking down harder and harder on people trying to expose the environmental cost of projects related to the Games.

New Law Threatens to Choke Freedom in Egypt

By Hisham Allam
Demonstrations have been at the heart of historic upheavals in Egypt since January 2011. But a newly proposed law that seeks to regulate protests could imperil one of the biggest gains of the Arab Spring revolution here: freedom of expression.

Fragile Peace Holds on a Syrian Island

By Karlos Zurutuza
"The whole region is under control but be careful in the city centre," says a Kurdish militiaman at the eastern gate of Qamishli, 600 km northeast of capital Damascus, confirming rumours about breaches in Syria’s relatively stable northeast.

Cold War Logic Takes Root in Venezuela

By Walter García and Humberto Márquez
A Venezuelan government decree to control information and “internal and external enemy activity” appeals to concepts of the national security doctrine, which various right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America invoked in the 1970s and 1980s.

Skype Gets Dark in Karachi

By Irfan Ahmed
First, it was Youtube. Now, if the government of Sindh has its way, it could well be goodbye to Skype, Whatsapp, Viber and Tango for the people of this province in southeastern Pakistan. At least for the next three months.

Kurds Build Bridges At Last

By Karlos Zurutuza
After fleeing the war three months ago, Gulnaz is headed back for Syria to bury her brother within the 24 hours Islam stipulates. But it is far from easy to take the coffin across the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Swat Not at Peace With Malala

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
Back in Swat Valley in Pakistan where she comes from, Malala Yousafzai who had been tipped to win the Nobel peace prize this year, has not only left behind more girls in school now than there were a year ago but also large numbers of people who are now distanced – and even hostile – to her.

U.S. Accused of Unprecedented Assault on Press Freedom

By Ramy Srour
Press freedom advocates here charge that the administration of President Barack Obama is engaged in a war on “leaks” of secret information that is without parallel in this country.

Cybercrime Treaty Could Be Used to Go After Cyberespionage

By Emilio Godoy
Governments of countries that engage in large-scale electronic espionage, like the United States, and companies that develop spying software could theoretically face legal action for violating the Convention on Cybercrime.

Ninja Citizen Journalists Don’t Claim to Be Impartial

By Fabiana Frayssinet
The citizen journalists of Midia Ninja, who have covered the protests that broke out across Brazil in June right in the thick of things, are part of a new kind of reporting: one that is proud to be biased.
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