ARTICLE 19 has launched The Free Flow Principles: Freedom of Expression and Rights to Water and Sanitation on the ever of World Water Day. The Principles, developed in cooperation with experts and activists from around the world, provide guidance to policy makers and activists on how freedom of expression and information can help secure the rights to water and sanitation. "While the rights to...
Municipal and regional elections regarded as a key test for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government will be held on March 30 after weeks of campaign tension that has not spared Turkey’s journalists. Embroiled in political and financial scandals and waging an information war with the influential followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, the government has stepped up pressure on...
A radio broadcaster in Kalibo town, the capital of Aklan province, has been receiving threatening text messages since February 2014 when he began criticising the town mayor for alleged corruption, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility has reported. Jodel Rentillo said he started receiving threatening text messages in late February after he started discussing in his radio programme issues...
The Chief of the Human Rights Secretariat of the Presidency (Secretaria de Direitos Humanos da Presidência da República, or SDH), Maria do Rosário, has made proposals to increase the safety of journalists. The recommendations thatwere made on March 11 are part of a working group's final report on violence against media professionals, a group that was created in 2013 by the Human Rights...
Burundi’s most popular radio station, privately-owned Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), is under the threat of closure because of its coverage of the current political unrest, according to Reporters Without Borders. Burundi’s Security Council, a body headed by the president, issued a statement on March 16 accusing RPA and other media of “sowing fear in the population†and calling on the...
Press freedom organisations have condemned Turkey’s blocking of Twitter, which began at around midnight Thursay night, just nine days ahead of regional elections and after several weeks in which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s standing has been damaged by the leaking of a series of embarrassing audio recordings online. The alleged recordings of Erdogan’s conversations, many of which...
Sardar Ahmad, a senior reporter for Agence France-Presse's Kabul bureau, was killed in an attack on Thursday night, press freedom organisations have reported. Four gunmen stormed the Serena Hotel in Kabul during Nowruz celebrations, which marks the start of the Afghan and Persian new year. The assailants killed nine, including Ahmad, members of his family including his wife and two children; a...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan has threatened to close down Twitter. The threats come only days after he vowed to shut down Facebook and YouTube in Turkey. "We call on Prime Minister ErdoÄŸan to stop his vitriol against social media in the country and focus on ensuring that all information platforms are free to function freely in advance of local elections," Committee to Protect...
Reporters Without Borders has expressed concern over recent verdicts against journalists and media organisations by the country’s publications court. The court was established to settle disputes over defamation and libel cases. The press freedom organisation called for comprehensive reform of all laws concerning the practice of journalism in Lebanon. Currently, the press law (adopted in 1962...
Oleksandr Panteleymonov, acting CEO of the National Ukrainian Television Company (NTKU), was attacked on the evening of March 18, when around 20 people led by parliamentary members of the nationalist Svoboda party stormed into his office, insulted and beat him, and forced him to sign a resignation letter. “A full and impartial investigation must be carried out to ensure that this kind of...
