Sport for Rights

Dear Prime Minister Cameron: You recently spoke out in defense of press freedom in Africa by raising the case of an imprisoned Somali journalist when you met with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. The journalist was subsequently released. The moral authority of a British prime minister to mount such a defense stems in part from Britain’s history of nearly 300 years without government regulation of the press.

Preface By David Schlesinger There is nothing like reading a report on China and the media to highlight the mass of contradictions that is the country today.

New York, February 19, 2013–International journalist Nadir Dendoune was released on February 14 after being detained in Iraqi prison for almost a month, according to news reports. Dendoune was arrested for photographing a location officials described as being restricted and was later accused of failing to register under the country’s vague Journalist Protection Law.

New oil deals drive optimism, but the public knows little about the details. By Tom Rhodes

The international community, deep in donor fatigue, withdraws media funding. By Bob Dietz

Countries hosting the Olympics assume global obligations. What if they renege? By Nina Ognianova and Kristin Jones

Nursultan Nazarbayev’s authoritarian government cracked down on critical news coverage with a flurry of early-year legislation and newsroom raids that came just weeks after deadly clashes between police and striking oil workers in the western city of Zhanaozen. In January, in the wake of the December 2011 labor unrest, Nazarbayev’s government enacted legislation barring distribution…