Vugar Gojayev assesses the impact on free expression and activism in Azerbaijan as bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada face trial
Plight of bloggers gains international support
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Index on Censorship
Taliban threatens Afghan voters
The Taliban in Afghanistan has threatened to cut off voters' fingers and attack polling stations in its bid to force Afghans to boycott the presidential elections. One of the so-called "night letters", pinned up around villages in southern...
Brazilian given 31 years for journalist torture
A judge handed down a 31-year prison term to a police officer turned vigilante who abducted and tortured three journalists working for O Dia newspaper, a verdict the Brazilian newspaper described Thursday as “historic.” Former police inspector...
Pakistani TV reporter shot dead
TV journalist Siddique Bacha Khan has been shot dead in the city of Mardan in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province. Unidentified gunmen ambushed Bacha Khan, news correspondent for the independent Aaj TV channel, and shot him at close...
Russian editor quits over death threats
Rosa Malsagova, editor-in-chief of the website Ingushetiya.org , has decided to leave her post because of "threats made to her by militants". This followed an item entitled "Mujahedeen Address to Rosa Malsagova," which was recently published on a...
Australia plans new terror laws
Australia has announced plans to amend its anti-terrorism legislation to give more power to the police. Australia has gradually extended laws on detaining and interrogating terrorism suspects since 2001. There are plans to broaden the definition of...
Iran bails French teaching assistant
Iran has freed on bail a 24-year-old French university lecturer who was charged with spying after last month's presidential election. A statement from the French presidency said Clotilde Reiss was in good health and would stay at the French embassy...
US tests technology to foil foreign web censorship
The U.S. government is covertly testing technology in China and Iran that lets residents break through screens set up by their governments to limit access to news on the Internet. The "feed over email" (FOE) system delivers news, podcasts and data...
French minister urges burka ban
A ban on wearing the all covering burka in France would stem the spread of what French minister Fadela Amara called the "cancer" of radical Islam. The Muslim minister for urban regeneration told the Financial Times newspaper that the head-to-toe...
Burma to free Suu Kyi “guest”
The American man John Yettaw whose unauthorised visit to Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi led to her extended detention, has been released, the office of US Senator Jim Webb has said. The statement said Webb, who was on a two-day visit to...
Iraqi protests against censorship
Journalists, writers and booksellers united in Baghdad today to stage a protest against censorship. The protesters are concerned about encroachments by the government on the freedom of writers, both in print and online. The demonstration took place...
South Koreans sue Japanese newspaper
A group of South Korean citizens have filed a lawsuit against a Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, for what they claimed to be a misreport. A total of 1,886 people Thursday filed a suit against the paper for a report in July last...