14 Apr 2010 | Academic Freedom, Events
In collaboration with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics will be running a series of panel discussions at UK universities throughout the 2009/2010 academic year. These will focus on the important role of academics and academic freedom in society and the specific problems faced by academics in trying to carry out their work under repressive conditions.
15th April, 5-6.30pm – Academic Freedom in the 21st Century
Lawyer Mark Stephens, Chair of UEL Governors and trustee of Index of Censorship will chair a panel discussion by three academic refugees from Cameroon, Iraq and Rwanda covering the personal threats and difficulties they faced as academics.
The event will be held at the University of East London, East Building, G08
To RSVP to any CARA/BIS Academic Freedom Discussion please email [email protected]
13 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost
On 7 April, Enrique Lazo Flores, editor of the newspaper La Región, in the southern city of Ilo, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted of attacking the honor of Renato Ascuña Chavera, a regional politician. The jail sentence was later suspended. The lawsuit questioned a series of articles about Ascuña Chavera’s suspension from his post, for indiscipline and breach of duties, as well as criticism of his conduct published by the newspaper La Región.
13 Apr 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized
Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi government to suspend its media regulations. The regulations, which impose tight restrictions on the country’s broadcast media, have been enforced by the Communication and Media Commission (CMC) in order to silence the broadcasters who encourage ‘incitement of sectarianism.’ “These restrictions open the door to politically motivated discrimination in the regulation and licensing of broadcasters” claims Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. The organisation claims the government can prohibit speeches and that incite the violence but the vague definition endangers the international norms of freedom of expression. The new restrictive Iraqi broadcast rules have been compared to the Afghan government’s ban on the filming and live broadcasting of militant attacks, approved on March 2010.
13 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Two Tibetan students studying at the Northwest National Minorities’ University in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, were arrested by Chinese authorities last week. Police raided the rooms of Tashi Rabten (pen name Te’urang) and Druklo (pen name Shokjang), searching their personal possessions and confiscating their mobile phones, laptops and books. Tashi Rabten, editor of the banned literary magazine Shar Dungri (Eastern Snow Mountain), had previously been arrested in June 2009 for editing a collection of political essays called Written in Blood.
