Ales Bialiatski, head of Viasna, Belarus's leading human rights group, has been arrested on suspicion of "concealment of income" and tax evasion. Tatsiana Reviaka, A member of Vesna, told Human Rights House Belarus that she believed "the reason...
CATEGORY: News and features

Barefoot into Cyberspace
An extract from Becky Hogge‘s new book, asking if the web can really set us free

Website blocking: gone but not forgotten?
The UK government’s dropping of blocking plans are to be welcomed, says
Peter Bradwell. But there are questions over what happens next with web copyright
Egypt: BBC journalist detained
The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil has been arrested in Egypt while reporting from Cairo. In her most recent tweet, Khalil said she and those with her were "OK" and on the way to see district prosecutors. She had travelled to Tahrir Square after Egyptian...
Thailand: Editor faces anti-royal charges
Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a Thai political activist and former editor-in-chief of the Voice of Taksin and Red Power partisan news magazines, was last week charged with two offences of lese majeste for two separate articles deemed critical of the...

John Moores University withdraws Robert Halfon libel case
Liverpool John Moores university has dropped its libel case against Conservative MP Robert Halfon, who had criticised the university’s alleged commercial links with the regime of Colonel Gadaffi.
Sri Lanka: opposition newspaper editor badly beaten
Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, editor of the Tamil-language daily Uthayan, was on Friday evening beaten by unidentified men with iron bars in the northern Sri Lankan city of Jaffna. Having been rushed to hospital with critical head injuries, he remains...
China: journalist detained, beaten after reporting riots
Translated screenshots from journalist Lu Chaoguo's Tencent microblog account reveal his detention and mistreatment by police after reporting on recent riots in Anshun, Guizhou province. The riots were sparked by a "city management” official...
China: social media response to Wenzhou crash challenges censorship
The potent reaction from both Chinese netizens and mainstream media in response to Sunday's deadly train crash in Wenzhou has shown how the state's propaganda machine is being increasingly challenged. The majority of Chinese media (including...
Afghanistan: journalist killed in Taliban attack
Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a stringer working for the BBC in Afghanistan, has been killed during a Taliban raid on a TV station in Uruzgan province, southern Afghanistan. It is unclear whether Khpulwak, 25, was killed by Taliban or Nato forces responding...