TURKEY: Filtering Out Internet Freedom

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

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

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.

Jailed Journalists Reflect Greater Struggle for Internet Freedom

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

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

FILM: Political Prisoners Are Burma’s Unsung Heroes

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.

INDIA: Kashmir’s Media Miracle Feeds on Conflict

"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

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

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

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.

SOUTH AFRICA: “Secrecy Bill” Step Backwards for Africa

Critics call it "the Secrecy Bill". And it comes at a time when several African countries are adopting promising new legislation on access to information. But campaigners say South Africa's draft Protection of Information Bill represents a step backwards.

GREECE: Social Media Advances Against Elite Owners

An unflattering report on Greece’s media by a former United States envoy to this country, revealed by Wikileaks, evoked little public reaction because it was taken as a faithful portrayal.

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Caught Between the Army and the Taliban

Journalists covering the United States-led ‘war-on-terror’ in Pakistan’s turbulent northwest are not sure who wants them out of the way more – the Taliban or the Pakistan army.

MEXICO: Murders of Reporters Heighten Despair and Shock

"And how do you escape this anxiety, this sensation that nothing we do does any good?" a Mexican journalist wrote on her Facebook page after the murder of two of her colleagues in Mexico City.

OP-ED: Manipulating Social Networks

If there's one thing that net-savvy activists from Tunisia to Bahrain are aware of, it’s that the Internet isn’t always safe. From the constant threat of surveillance to the knowledge that posting the wrong picture on Facebook can get you arrested - or worse - activists have for a long time taken measures to mitigate risks, censoring themselves, using special tools like Tor, or staying off certain networks altogether.

MEDIA-IRAQ: ‘Protection’ Law Offers Little Safety

When Ali Sumerian, an editor for Al-Sabah newspaper, and three local media colleagues sat down for a restaurant meal after reporting on a demonstration in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on Feb. 25 this year, security forces detained them. "We were accused of encouraging an anti-political process," says Sumerian. It was only after their arrest triggered a media outcry, he says, were they released 12 hours later. The four were just some of the journalists attacked and arrested that day.

WikiLeaks Blames Guardian Newspaper for Leaks

WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website, has said that its massive archive of unredacted U.S. State Department cables was exposed in a security breach, which it blamed on its one-time partner - Britain's Guardian newspaper.

OP-ED-MEDIA: Colombian Law Sets Dangerous Precedent

Colombian lawmakers are studying the "Lleras law", the latest effort by that country to secure a free trade agreement with the United States by submitting to U.S. demands to comply with U.S. intellectual property laws. The bill is currently being fast-tracked with little input or consultation from Colombian citizens.

BURKINA FASO: Justice Campaigners Welcome Police Convictions for Fatal Beating

The conviction of three policemen for the February death of high school student Justin Zongo should be another building block in the struggle against impunity in Burkina Faso, say student leaders and human rights defenders.

EGYPT: People-Funded TV Challenges Big Business

Egypt’s most organised political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is tapping crowds as a new financing method for its nascent TV station and media outlets to be able to compete with well-oiled challengers in corporate and government- run media.

MEXICO: Activists Organise Against Spiralling Threats

"Open the door! Open the door, you SOBs!" Policemen dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and carrying "what I suppose were high-power rifles" broke down the door of the home of Efraín Bartolomé, a poet who lives on the south side of the Mexican capital. They had no warrant.