Press Freedom

Case to Abolish Gambian Death Penalty Falls on Toothless Court

By Saikou Jammeh
The court of justice for the West African economic community is expected to hear a civil society case calling for the abolition of the death penalty in the Gambia this December, four months after the execution of nine prisoners shocked the world.
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First Muslim Human Rights Commission to Launch End December

By Carey L. Biron
Gathering for the first time here in Washington, representatives of the newly established human rights commission of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) stated Thursday that they plan to start their substantive work by the end of the month.

Haitian Community Radio Reopens After Protests

By Milo Milfort and Jane Regan
A community radio station silenced by Haitian authorities is open again thanks to the mobilisation of other stations as well as organisations and associations both inside and outside of Haiti.

Ethiopia’s Anti-Terrorism Law Squelches Opposition, Activists Say

By Blain Biset
Ethiopia’s Anti-Terrorism Proclamation is once again stirring debate in this Horn of Africa nation as lawyer Temam Ababulga challenges the 2009 law in the highly-publicised "Muslim terrorism" case.

Does a Personality Cult Grow in Astana?

By Joanna Lillis
“One Fatherland, one Fate, one Leader of the Nation” – so says the slogan beside the smiling face of President Nursultan Nazarbayev on giant billboards looming over the streets in Kazakhstan. They are promoting a new holiday on Dec. 1: First President’s Day, when Kazakhstan will fete its longtime leader.

Media Giant Advances on Taiwan

By Dennis Engbarth
Taiwan civic reform, journalist and labour organisations have mobilised against the acquisition of the large Next Media (Taiwan) group by tycoons linked with China. They say this threatens Taiwan’s news freedom and even the survival of its democratic political system.

Ethiopia Throttles Rights Organisations

By Ed McKenna
The world received contradictory signals about Ethiopia’s human rights record when in the same week it was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a major German charity closed its Ethiopian office in protest against a restrictive political environment.

Political Provocateurs Expose Kenya’s “MaVultures”

By Mike Elkin

A new website linking corruption and other scandals to high-ranking Kenyan politicians, created by a team of political provocateurs, has become one of the most-visited web pages in the country.

Can Facebook Become Substitute for Live Azeri Opposition Protests?

By EurasiaNet Correspondents
They’ve battled police in the streets and they’ve challenged authority the courts. Now, faced with staggering increases in fines for unauthorised demonstrations, Azerbaijani opposition activists are turning to Facebook to get their messages out.

Israel Throttles Palestinian Television

By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
George Sahhar opens the door to a closet-sized control room, where a cacophony of wires, routers, papers, and computer screens are messily strewn across a desk.

Trinidad’s Broadcasters Rebel over Govt Airtime Demands

By Peter Richards
Nearly three years after it came to power promising to uphold press freedom, Trinidad and Tobago's coalition government is under fire for demanding free airtime from local broadcasters.

Q&A: “They Demanded I Behave. I Decided Not To”

By Julia Kallas
Khadija Ismayilova has been threatened with blackmail by her own government. She has been branded an "enemy of the state", mainly for her exposés of official corruption.

Q&A: Exposing the Good, the Bad and the Lack of Media Freedom

By Stanley Kwenda
Pansy Tlakula, the African Union's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, has done her best to address the continued harassment of journalists in the Gambia.
Kirsty Hughes

Q&A: Press Ethics Under Scrutiny in the UK

By Malgorzata Stawecka
Upheaval over a new system of press regulation, which envisages stronger government intervention in the media, is posing a growing threat to Britain's age-old press freedom and to that same freedom worldwide.

Kashmiris Demand the Right to Know

By Athar Parvaiz
Bashir Ahmad Malik was flabbergasted when a helicopter carrying an Indian official from Kashmir’s summer capital of Srinagar landed in his resident Drang village, just 17 miles away from its point of departure.

Tough Job? Try Reporting on Corruption in Kazakhstan

By Christopher Pala
Lukpan Akhmedyarov, a 36-year-old reporter for an independent weekly in western Kazakhstan who was recently ambushed and nearly killed, was awarded the Peter Mackler Award for Ethical and Courageous Journalism this month – the first journalist from that country to receive international recognition in 10 years.

Rights Report on Iran Highlights Executions, Political Prisoners

By Omid Memarian
More than a year into his mandate, Ahmed Shaheed, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, told the Third Committee of the U.N. General Assembly this week that the rights situation in Iran remains critical, especially as it pertains to human rights defenders, journalists, and religious and ethnic minorities.

TAJIKISTAN: Journalists Push Back Against Mounting Media Restrictions

By Konstantin Parshin
In a country with no daily newspapers and soft-hitting state media outlets, the Internet is where an increasing number of curious Tajikistanis go for news and information. That’s apparently got officials worried.

Internet Becomes Newest Victim of Repression in Kashmir

By Athar Parvaiz
Fayaz Ahmad’s Faim Internet Café in the Sopore township of Indian Kashmir was booming until a year ago, when police entered his premises without warning and seized all his computers.
Tarun Tejpal. Credit: Shailendra Pandey

Q&A: “Indian Reality Is Infinitely Complex”

By Becky Bergdahl
One morning, Tarun Tejpal awoke to learn that five hitmen had been arrested for having a contract to kill him. Suddenly, the life of the prominent Indian journalist and editor was turned upside down.
NS Newsflash/CC BY 2.0

Media Pluralism at Risk of Extinction in Chile

By Marianela Jarroud
The announcement that the La Nación newspaper of Chile is closing down has drawn the attention of journalists, analysts and opposition lawmakers to the heavy concentration of press ownership, now in the hands of only two business groups, and to the lack of regulations to ensure media pluralism.
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