Senegal: Journalists threatened, assaulted amid election

March 2nd, 2012

A number of attacks and threats have been made against journalists covering the Sengalese presidential elections. At least 12 incidents of threats and physical harm have been recorded against journalists in the lead up to and aftermath of the vote. Senegal’s incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade stood against thirteen other candidates in elections for a third term in power on Sunday. No official results have been released.

Belarus: Two more former presidential candidates sentenced

May 20th, 2011

Two former presidential candidates, Vladimir Neklaev and Vytal Rymashevsky were sentenced today alongside a number of political activists, Serguey Voznyak, Andrei Dmitriev, Alexander Feduta and Nasta Polojanko. They were all detained after protests against the disputed re-election of Alexander Lukashenko on 19 December last year. All were put on probation, Neklaev, Rymashevsky, Voznyak, Feduta and Dmitriev for two years and Polojanka, who is just 20 years old, for one year. The sentence was handed down by Judge Janna Jukouskaya, who is currently subject to a European Union travel ban.

Iran’s reformist movement hit again

April 21st, 2010

Two political parties were suspended, a newspaper banned and three political figures sentenced to prison by the Iranian authorities on Monday. According to the official IRNA news agency, the Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution, the reformist group supporting Mr Hussein Moussavi, and the Islamic Iran Participation Front, a reformist political Iranian organ, have been suspended until their political status can be clarified. The reformist newspaper Bahar, formed just three months ago, has been banned.  It was accused of spreading misinformation about last June’s elections and Iran’s Islamic system of government. Fars News reports that three politicians, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Davood Soleimani and Mohsen Mirdamadi, have been sentenced to six years in prison and a 10-year ban on all political or media activities.

Leaks and whistleblowing: proposals do not go far enough

August 12th, 2009

Christopher Galley doubts that the latest recommendations will protect whistleblowers. Investigations into leaks need to be wholly independent of politics (more…)

The Nation

May 20th, 2009

The Nation is a weekly journal of opinion, featuring analysis on politics and culture. It makes an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred.

Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI)

May 20th, 2009

Cartoonists Rights Network International monitors and supports political cartoonists who find themselves in trouble because of their work. CRNI collaborates with cartoonists to mount campaigns and educate the public about the unique powers of political cartoonists.

Peter Hitchens: bring back arguments

May 15th, 2009

As the divide narrows between left and right in Britain, so too does the space for adversarial dialogue and free expression
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