An award winning Uzbek photographer sentenced to jail after a court ruled she had insulted the nation, has been released thanks to an amnesty. Umida Akhmedova said that she had done nothing wrong and will therefore appeal on the verdict. Akhmedova...
Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa dissolved parliament on Tuesday, and announced general elections as the opposition called for nationwide protests over the arrest of defeated presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka, the former army...
Ozan Kilinc, editor of Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat, has been sentenced to 21 years in jail for publishing 'Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) propaganda'. Comments or acts judged supportive of the PKK are a serious crime in Turkey. The PKK, branded...
Twenty-five Lebanese Shiite publishing houses have been barred from exhibiting books during the annual fair in Manama on 17 March 2010. Al Wassat daily newspaper reports that although a black list has been issued by the Bahraini authorities, the...
An Iraqi photographer who was arrested in his Mahmudiya home by the US military on 1 September 2008 has been released. Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed was held for 17 months without charge at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad, despite a ruling by Iraq’s central...
Police have seized a Polish cultural centre in the town of Ivyanets outside Minsk. An activist who was travelling to the centre has also been detained. President Lukashenko claimed in 2005 the organisation responsible for the centre was trying to...
Moscow gay pride parade organisers have complained to the European Court of Human Rights about the ban on the 2009 parade. Moscow’s Mayor Luzhkow has previously labelled the parade “satanic” and the case follows a number of unsuccessful appeals...
The number of Freedom of Information requests refused by the UK government increased to 22 per cent in the last three month period on record, compared to 15 per cent in the comparable period in 2005. Read more here
Luiz Claudio Cunha, journalist and author of the book "Operation Condor: The kidnapping of the Uruguayans", is facing charges for "moral harm" against João Augusto da Rosa, former member of the secret police during the Brazilian dictatorship....
A court in Myanmar is scheduled to announce a verdict on imprisoned dissident Nyi Nyi Aung (Kyaw Zaw Lwin) on Wednesday. Aung spent years campaigning for Burmese democracy in exile before obtaining American citizenship. Upon a return visit, he was...