#FreeThePress: Ammar Abdulrasool
Press Uncuffed #FreeThePress Spotlight Medium: Internet Charge: Retaliatory Imprisoned: July 24, 2014 Released: May 4, 2015 Ammar Abdulrasool Bahrain 285 days in prison RELEASED In a rare order by the Court of Appeals, Bahraini photographer Ammar Abdulrasool was released on May 4, according to Al-Wasat newspaper. His appeal of his 2-year sentence is ongoing Plainclothes…
#FreeThePress: Ilham Tohti
Press Uncuffed #FreeThePress Spotlight Medium: Internet Charge: Anti-State Imprisoned: January 15, 2014 Ilham Tohti China To learn more about the leading jailer of journalists in the world, see “In China, mainstream media as well as dissidents under increasing pressure“ Video courtesy of the Financial Times @ftvideo Tohti, a Uighur scholar, writer, and blogger, was taken…
Je suis Charlie sentiment fades amid calls to tame free speech
Je suis Charlie. Two months after that phrase was used around the world to show solidarity with the victims of the January 7 attack against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, flowers are still left at the site of the killings on Rue Nicolas Appert in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. The street has reopened to…
Press apathy over Macedonia wiretaps is symptom of failing democracy
Journalists and professional press organizations were given just one day’s warning on February 25 that Zoran Zaev, leader of Macedonia’s opposition party the Social Democrats, would be revealing what he described as a “bomb”–conversations of journalists allegedly wiretapped by the government–at his weekly press conference.
CPJ urges Egypt to adopt more open press climate
Dear President el-Sisi: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international press freedom organization, is writing to express its concern about the climate for press freedom in Egypt and to follow up on meetings we had last month with several high-level officials in your administration.
Press Freedom Panel Discussion: “Government Control Through the Internet”
The new information technologies have brought big advances to humanity and there has been generated an explosion of new revolutions through more empowered citizens. However, governments are also using the Internet to control, spy and generate cybernetic attacks. Panelists: Jane Kirtley, University of Minnesota professor; Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists…
Paraguayan journalist gunned down in Brazil
São Paulo, March 6, 2015–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder on Thursday of Paraguayan radio journalist Gerardo Ceferino Servían Coronel, who was shot to death in Ponta Porã, a small town on the Brazil side of the Brazil-Paraguay border.
Ban of India’s Daughter and other films silences debate on key issues
What do Delhi, Beijing, and Villiers-sur-Marne have in common, but Ouagadougou does not? The first three recently banned access to films their governments deemed inappropriate. But a film festival in the fourth, the capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa, is stepping up security to show an acclaimed but controversial movie about Islamic militancy in…
Nobel Peace Prize Forum
This year’s programme will explore disarmament in its relation to conflict resolution, mediation and peacebuilding. Disarmament is a critical component of a peace that can be sustained. Sustainable peace also requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders, including women. One current, tragic example of the failure of disarmament and inclusive and sustainable peacebuilding is the Central…
Murder of Boris Nemtsov highlights Russia’s impunity record
The brazen contract-style killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Friday night–carried out within range of a dozen security cameras and yards from the Kremlin walls in Moscow–serves as a grim reminder of the risks government critics face in Russia.