February 20th, 2012
Blogger and free speech activist Razan Ghazzawi was released on Saturday along with her female colleagues, after being arrested and detained last Thursday following a raid on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus. Ghazzawi’s sister tweeted that Razan had returned home but was not allowed to leave the country. Razan’s male colleagues remain detained.February 20th, 2012
Bahrain announced the deportation of four foreign activists for “taking part in illegal demonstrations” on 18 February, bringing the number of those expelled over the past week to 12. The official BNA news agency reported on Friday that the four — including one American and one Briton — were deported for “lying on immigration forms”, as their “visas were issued for the purposes of tourism but all were participating in illegal demonstrations.”Tags: Tags: activism, Bahrain, deportation,
February 16th, 2012
Activists in Syria have reported that the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in Damascus was raided today. Between 12 and 14 people were arrested, with blogger Razan Ghazzawi said to be among them. Ghazzawi was arrested in December last year while travelling to a press freedom conference in Jordan, but was released 15 days later after a robust online campaign.November 7th, 2011
A group of petitioners attempting to visit blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng were beaten on 30 October. According to petitioner Zhu Jindi, as the group of 37 supporters made their way to Dongshigu in Shandong province, where Chen remains under illegal house arrest, 100 people appeared and beat the group, confiscating their mobile phones and cameras. Li Yu, a democracy activist from Sichuan, was severely beaten and thrown into a police car with two other petitioners. Li is still missing, though the other two individuals were released on 2 November. Other activists have reported similar incidents when attempting to visit Chen, who fell foul of authorities in 2005 for his work in exposing forced abortions in Shandong province.September 14th, 2011
Ontario Provincial Police have charged an activist with two counts of defamatory libel for online comments he made regarding undercover police officers. Using fake names, Dan Kellar outed two officers who had infiltrated activist networks. Upon learning that one of them was spotted in Toronto, he put out a “community alert’’ on the website of an activist group he was involved with. Police claim the comments were likely to injure the reputation of the officers by exposing them to hatred, contempt or ridicule. Kellar says the charges are an attempt to stifle dissent. He will appear in court in Toronto on 20 September.Tags: Tags: activism, Canada, criminal libel, Dan Kellar, defamation, g20,
September 12th, 2011
Chinese rights activist Wang Lihong has been sentenced to nine months in prison for “stirring up trouble”. Wang was charged after attending a demonstration last year at the trial of three other activists in Fuzhou, southern China, supporting three bloggers accused of defamation for helping a woman who pressed officials to reinvestigate her daughter’s death. Wang was detained in March of this year, following the government’s widespread crackdown on dissent.Tags: Tags: activism, China, dissent, Wang Lihong,
August 31st, 2011
A rights activist and RFE/RL correspondent in Kazakhstan is being sued for libel after she alleged children at a special needs school were being abused. In an article published in a local newspaper in May, Alima Abdirova said children at the boarding school in the western city of Aqtobe were subject to beatings and neglect. Abdirova is due to appear in court in the city on 27 August after the former director of the school took legal action. She is being sued as a member of the independent Kazakh Bureau for Human Rights group, and not as a journalist.Tags: Tags: activism, Alima Abdirova, Kazakhstan, RFE/RL,
August 10th, 2011
In his most outspoken tweets since his release, and despite bail conditions placing him under tight restrictions for at least a year, Ai Weiwei today lashed out at the “torment” of friends entangled in his situation and pressed the cases of other detained activists. “If you don’t speak for Wang Lihong, and don’t speak for Ran Yunfei, you are not just a person who will not stand out for fairness and justice; you do not have self-respect,” he wrote. A prolific Twitter user prior to his arrest, Ai was freed in June after being detained for over two months for supposed tax evasion. Last weekend he began tweeting again, though far more sporadically.Tags: Tags: activism, Ai Weiwei, censorship, China, Twitter,
