Flagged for Removal: Online Censorship on the Rise

The shutdown was surprisingly swift and almost total. In the midst of a popular revolution – one that was blogged, YouTubed, and Twittered in minute-by-minute cyber blasts – the Egyptian regime tightened its Internet spigot in late January, choking the free flow of information down to a trickle.

MEXICO: Journalists Defy Violence, Self-Censorship

In Mexico, the country in the Americas facing the worst wave of violence against reporters, different journalistic initiatives are combating this dynamic, which fuels a tendency towards self-censorship.

SRI LANKA: War Long Over, Media Still Muzzled

It has been two years since the end of Sri Lanka’s decades long war, and life in general has begun to slowly edge back towards normalcy here. Not so for the country’s besieged media community, according to observers and journalists alike - reporting still feels hemmed in and muzzled, they say.

EGYPT: Press Freedom Comes With a few Red Lines

The collapse of autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt has broken the state’s stranglehold on the local press, but journalists and bloggers must still be careful what they say.

THAILAND: Debate on Monarchy Tests Academic Freedom

History professor Somsak Jeamteerasakul has weathered a storm of insults since mid-December for doing the forbidden: he offered an alternative assessment of the most dominant institution in the country, its monarchy, in a forum at his university. Now military officials are dropping hints he could face more than just verbal attacks.

BAHRAIN: McCarthyism in Manama?

As the savage crackdown on the majority Shiite opposition movement drags on in Bahrain, King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa's military regime – backed by the hefty armed forces of Sunni- dominated Saudi Arabia – has moved from launching outright assaults on peaceful protestors on the streets of Manama in broad daylight into the murky waters of what experts are calling state terror, featuring all the old tactics of petrifying a population into submission.

BAHRAIN: U.S. Keeps Quiet over Repression

If President Barack Obama wanted to place Washington "on the right side of history" during the ongoing "Arab Spring", his reaction to recent events in Bahrain will likely make that far more difficult, according to a growing number of analysts and commentators here.

CHINA: Social Stability Puts Squeeze on the Rule of Law

There is no "Jasmine Revolution" in China, but the Chinese government might be creating the seeds for one through its elevation of social stability above the rule of law, some experts say.

OP-ED: Misunderstanding Bahrain’s Shia Protesters

Listening to the rhetoric coming out of Tehran, one might assume that Bahrain's Shia opposition is relying on help from its co-religionists next door. But, in fact, the opposite is true: the Shia opposition wants nothing more than for Tehran to stay out of the sectarian dispute unfolding in the tiny kingdom.

MEDIA: It’s Still a Man’s World, Especially at the Top

Long known as a "boy's club", the worldwide media industry continues to struggle with gender equality, with new research showing women are still underrepresented in the majority of newsrooms across the globe.

WIKILEAKS: Australians Call For Legislation to Protect Whistleblowers

Some Australians are convinced their government is sharing intelligence information with foreign powers about citizens implicated by documents released by Wikileaks.

YEMEN: Death Toll Rising at Peaceful Protests

Despite an ongoing dialogue between U.S. officials, human rights groups and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh regarding concerns over the use of lethal force to quell anti- government protests throughout the Persian Gulf state, the death toll continues to rise in Yemen's port city of Aden and in other locations.

MEDIA-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A Bad Case of Quid Pro Quo

At first glance, the Dominican Republic appears to be a bastion of free information, with seven print dailies and seven national television stations. But journalists here say that more subtle means of coercion have become the norm.

INDIA: Whistleblowers Pay With Their Lives

On a winter evening this January, Amarnath Pandey was returning home through a low-lit alley of a suburban town in India’s heartland state Uttar Pradesh when a motorcycle-riding gunman suddenly appeared and fired at him.

HUNGARY: Media Struggles to Find a Free Voice

EU pressure may force Hungary to step back on some provision of its controversial media law, but its main goal has been achieved before it even took effect: media are intimidated.

Mideast Crackdown Puts U.S. Democracy Line to the Test

As popular protests escalated in some restive Arab countries Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama criticised the regime- sanctioned blood- letting of innocent demonstrators mobilising against government corruption and repression.

U.N. Chief Rebukes Repressive Middle Eastern Leaders

As the military and the police try to violently suppress demonstrations spreading across Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Iraq and Iran, a usually reticent U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon is taking a hard line against the oppressive authoritarian regimes in the politically volatile Middle East - and specifically against unrelenting leaders cracking down on protesters.

Soviet Shadow Over Russia

With less than a year remaining for parliamentary and presidential elections in Russia, human rights activists and opposition forces have become targets of political intimidation and frequent harassment by law enforcement agencies. They see an effort to exclude them from the country’s democratic process.

Jailed Reporters at 14-Year High, CPJ Says

The number of reporters in detention around the world has reached the highest level in 14 years, with China and Iran claiming top spots as jailhouses for journalists, according to the annual "Attacks on the Press" report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Tuesday.

Tunisia Speaks Up, Shakily

Freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press are the big gains of Tunisia's so-called Jasmine Revolution, according to a top Tunisian economist, writer and opposition figure. But he warns that dark days still lie ahead.

Assange in Decisive Fight Over Swedish Rape Law

The attempt to extradite the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for questioning over allegations of sexual crimes has caused a big debate about the Swedish justice system abroad. The case has also brought the comparatively broad definitions of what constitutes rape in this country into the limelight.