Laws protecting journalists and their sources are to be proposed next Tuesday. Julian Assange, editor of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, has been advising parliamentarians and believes the parliament is receptive to the need for change. If the proposal succeeds it will require Iceland’s government to consider introducing new legislation.
Prime minister Silvio Belusconi’s party has pushed through rules which will drastically circumscribe political content during the run-up to Italy’s regional elections. State broadcasters must now either accommodate over 30 political parties on their talk shows or be transferred away from their prime-time slots. Belusconi has previously attacked state television, claiming the programme Annozero was a ‘criminal use of public television’ when it interviewed the call-girl Belusconi had allegedly slept with. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) criticised Italy’s new rules as the latest ‘nail in the coffin of media freedom‘.
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 a terrorist organisation, launched an armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in 1984.
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 destabilise his regime and set up a government-approved alternative. Both the EU and the US have condemned the actions. There are around 400,000 Poles in Belarus. Belarus has also recently detained 20 activists demonstrating in support of political prisoners.