The dissident human rights lawyer --- missing for over a year until he resurfaced last month --- has been reported missing again by his family. In early April, Gao gave a series of interviews to the western media publicly renouncing activism. He...
President Mahinda Rajapaska has pardoned a journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of supporting terrorism. Tyssainayagam, then editor of North-Eastern Monthly magazine, was first arrested in March 2008. He was accused of...
Elton John was banned from playing a private show on 18 May after the head of Egypt’s musician union denounced his “anti-religious sentiments”. Union head Mounir al Wasimi said John should not be allowed to perform in Egypt because he is “a...
The United Arab Emirates authorities is to monito internet users in public places such as malls and cyber cafes according to a report from the newspaper Emarat al-Youm on Wednesday. People without newly-mandated national ID cards will not be...
An independent journalist and blogger has been sentenced to 20 months in prison on charges that had not yet been made known. Dania Virgen García was sentenced just one day after her arrest by police on 22 April. Virgen García's blog El blog de...
The Saudi Arabian government broke the Arabic record for the fastest time to block a new website, clocking in at just 15 hours. On 25 April, they blocked a US- based site created by Egyptian activists The Egyptian Association for Change,...
Musician M.I.A's video for her new single Born Free has been banned from Youtube just days after it was released. The controversial video, directed by Romain Gavras, shows American police rounding redheads, and subjecting them to brutal violence....
The newly elected President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, appointed Mervyn Silva as the deputy minister for media and information on Friday. Silva is a politician with a notorious reputation for physically and verbally attacking journalists and...
An amendment to laws on guarding state secrets could force communication providers to cooperate with the country's security apparatus over the leaking or distribution of state secrets. Telecom operators and internet service providers will have to...
International human rights monitors are to investigate the murders of journalists in Honduras. Since the beginning of March, seven reporters have been shot dead in the country. A delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will...
Police in California have been accused of breaking the state’s journalist shield law. On Sunday, officers seized computers belonging to Jason Chen, the editor of technology blog Gizmodo, which released details of Apple’s latest iPhone. State law...
A team of lawyers called for the ban of Arabic classic A Thousand and One Nights on 17 April. The lawyers, from the "Actio popularis" group, filed a complaint with the prosecutor general, demanding that the book be confiscated and its publishers...