The Ministry of Justice is to conduct a comprehensive review of England's defamation laws, which will be experted to report in mid-March, it was revealed today. The ministry's seemingly strong new commitment comes after over 10,000 people signed a...
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Liu Xiaobo sentenced to 11 years in prison
Prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment on 25 December. He was charged with subversion after his part in the drafting of Charter 08, a document calling for free speech and the rule of law. Western journalists and...
Chinese censors pull popular soap opera
A hit television series has been prevented from continuing according to newspapers in China. The drama “Snail House” was set in a fictional mainland city and the plot centered on rising housing prices and the “fangnu,” or mortgage slaves, as they...
Cameroonian journalist abducted in Chad
Cameroonian journalist Innocent Ebodé was abducted from his home in the Chadian capital N'Djamena on 21 December. A military source said that he is safe in Kousséri, across the border in Cameroon, but Ebodé's family and lawyer have not heard from...
Canada takes chill off libel laws
The Canadian Supreme Court ruled on 23 December to strengthen the public interest defence in libel cases. The chief justice stated that the law as it stood did not "give adequate weight" to free expression. The court also moved to change the...
Pakistan: three killed in press club bombing
Three people have been killed and several others injured after a suicide bomber attacked a club for journalists in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar and a dozen more injured according to police. The incident took place when a bomber blew...
Uzbekistan: photographer facing jail term
A criminal case has been filed against the photographer and documentary film maker Umida Akhmedova in Uzbekistan for "slander" and "insult". Akhmedova is incriminated for her involvement in "Women and men: from dawn till dusk" photo album, produced...
Kyrgyzstan: journalist dies after brutal attack
A Kyrgyz opposition journalist, Gennady Pavlyuk has died in Kazakhstan today, nearly a week after he was thrown out of sixth-floor window with his hands and feet bound. He had been in a coma since the 16 December incident and died without regaining...
Turkey: investigative journalist murdered
Cihan Hayirsevener, the editor of a local newspaper in the northwestern Turkish city of Bandirma has been shot dead. The shooting follows threats made against him over his coverage of a corruption scandal. The 53-year-old was walking to the...
Burma “will review” Aung San Suu Kyi sentence
Burma's highest court has provisionally agreed to review the most recent extension of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest. Suu Kyi's lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court last month after a lower court upheld a decision to sentence her...