Press Freedom Archives

Community radio operator at La Cotorra. Credit: Courtesy of La Cotorra FM

URUGUAY: Community Radios Have Innovative Law, But Are Off the Air

Uruguay took a giant step towards more democratic media when it passed a law on community radio broadcasting in 2007. But although regulations for the law were approved in late 2010, many broadcasters are now off the air and waiting to be assigned a frequency.

URUGUAY: Community Radios Have Innovative Law, But Are Off the Air

By Inés Acosta

Uruguay took a giant step towards more democratic media when it passed a law on community radio broadcasting in 2007. But although regulations for the law were approved in late 2010, many broadcasters are now off the air and waiting to be assigned a frequency.

Women Journalists in Cuba Revive Transgressive Group

By Dalia Acosta

More than 15 years after the "deactivation" in Cuba of the Association of Women Communicators (MAGIN), its members remain united in an informal network that transcends any specific political situation and has become a reference for the new generations.

Juan Carlos Monge and Todd Howland presenting the report. Credit:OHCHR Colombia

Illegal Wiretapping Continues in Colombia, U.N. Says

By Constanza Vieira

Illegal spying on human rights activists and journalists is still happening in Colombia, according to a new report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Crackdown on Journalists Hits 15-Year High

By Mathilde Bagneres

UNITED NATIONS – The number of journalists imprisoned worldwide reached a 15-year high in 2011, driven by repressive states seeking to choke the flow of information.

Verónica Galicia is among those in charge of La Voladora’s social network accounts. Credit: Daniela Pastrana/IPS

Community Station in Mexico Conquers Airwaves and Internet

By Daniela Pastrana

It’s always cold in this city in Mexico’s Sierra Nevada mountains, more than 2,400 metres above sea level, at the foot of the Popocatépetl volcano.

Papua New Guinea’s New Dawn With Community Radio

By Catherine Wilson

It was the decade-long civil war in the autonomous Bougainville region that inspired the founding of New Dawn FM, a community radio station recognised for contributing to the rebirth of civil society and development.

Police Raids on Media Threaten Press Freedom in Trinidad

By Peter Richards

Four months before the island hosts the World Congress of the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), the Trinidad and Tobago government finds itself on the defence in the wake of police raids on two national media houses in six weeks.

Kazakh Media Faces Harsh Crackdown

By Christopher Pala

President Nursultan Nazarbayev is orchestrating a media crackdown that editors and independent analysts say is the harshest since he began ruling this Central Asian republic in 1989.

PHILIPPINES: LGBT Radio Switches to Podcasting

By Kara Santos

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues have generally been ignored in the Philippines, or worse, negatively portrayed to spice up mainstream media programmes.

India Weighs Social Media Curbs

By - - and Sujoy Dhar

After India's agriculture minister Sharad Pawar was slapped by a young Sikh man at a function in New Delhi, to record his protest against corruption in high places, social media sites went viral with musical spoofs and caricatured images of the incident.

TURKEY: Filtering Out Internet Freedom

By Jacques N. Couvas

Fifteen respected academics from different Turkish universities signed a declaration in Ankara last week protesting recent state regulations restricting access to a variety of websites on ‘moral’ and ‘national integrity’ grounds.

IRAN: Elections Playbook Starts With Crackdown on Critics

By Omid Memarian

Less than two months before Iran's parliamentary elections, as much of the opposition mounts a boycott of the polls, a wave of arrests and lengthy prison sentences for political activists and journalists appears to herald a renewed crackdown in the Iranian capital.

THAILAND: Land of Smiles – and Grimaces

By - - and Marwaan Macan-Markar

The ‘Land of Smiles’ attracts some 14 million tourists annually to its tranquil beaches and glistening temples. But to many Thais, their country is becoming one of grimaces, thanks to its draconian lese-majeste (LM) law.

Eighty-six out of 179 journalists who were in prison worldwide as of Dec. 1, 2011 were reporters or bloggers whose work appeared online. Credit: Baddog/CC BY 2.0

Jailed Journalists Reflect Greater Struggle for Internet Freedom

By Rosemary D'Amour

The number of journalists in prison worldwide has spiked to its highest level in 15 years. Of them, nearly half worked online, raising larger questions about Internet freedom for more than just reporters, but average citizens as well.

TAJIKISTAN: President Taking a Press Beating in Dushanbe

By Konstantin Parshin

Following a diplomatic faux pas that enraged Russia, the knives seem to be out for Tajikistan's long-time president, Imomali Rahmon.

Elaine Pearson of Human Rights Watch, Jeanne Marie Hallacy, director of "Into the Current", and Thet Moo, former Burmese political prisoner Credit: Christian Papesch/IPS

FILM: Political Prisoners Are Burma’s Unsung Heroes

By Christian Papesch and - -

In a move that highlighted its sub-par human rights record, the government of Burma announced Oct. 11 that it would release 6,359 prisoners, but how many of these will be drawn from the country's estimated 500 to over 2,000 political prisoners remains uncertain.

Jammu & Kashmir's flourishing media is subject to subtle pressures. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS

INDIA: Kashmir’s Media Miracle Feeds on Conflict

By Athar Parvaiz

"If one were to search for a positive outcome to the ongoing armed conflict in Jammu and Kashmir state, it would be the growth of journalism," says Prof. Shams Imran at the department of journalism, Central University of Kashmir.

TUNISIA: Social Media Lift the Silence

By Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau

After 23 years of enforced silence, media professionals and artists in Tunisia are enjoying a period in which their freedom of expression is being respected for the first time.

MIDEAST: Media Throttled From All Sides

By IPS Correspondents

As media freedoms throughout the occupied Palestinian territories continue to decline, human rights groups are urging the international community to pressure Israeli and Palestinian security forces to respect and facilitate the ability of journalists to do their work.

NORTH KOREA: Women Wear Pants, Revive Markets

By Ahn Mi Young

North Korea's communist government frowns upon women wearing pants, seeing it as a mark of ‘rotten bourgeois lifestyles.' Yet, wives, literally wearing pants, are selling goods in the local markets to supplement their husbands' meagre pay packets.