Censorship

(Kinshasa) – The Democratic Republic of Congo’s military has suppressed peaceful critics in the more than 10 months since the government imposed martial law in the conflict-ridden eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, Human Rights Watch said today. The military and police have curtailed freedom of expression, put down

Tunisian President Kais Saied has set about dismantling institutional checks on his authority since his July power grab, and state television is an obvious target.

Popular privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, commonly considered an alternative to Google, has announced that it will be “down-ranking” sites associated with “disinformation,” along with adding “information boxes” to “highlight quality information.” The announcement received widespread backlash from DuckDuckGo supporters, who view the changes as adopting the censorship policies of the

(Berlin) – Russian authorities have arbitrarily arrested thousands of peaceful protesters at anti-war rallies across Russia, in line with their increasingly brutal crackdown on those who disagree with Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine. The police used excessive force against protesters while detaining them and, in several instances, inflicted abuse amounting

(New York) – Taliban authorities have carried out far-reaching censorship and violence against Afghan media in district and provincial centers, drastically limiting critical reporting in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said today. The situation facing journalists outside Kabul appears much worse than inside the capital, particularly for women. Journalists in the provinces

Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world. 1. Justin Trudeau’s complete lack of self-awareness On Friday Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared at a meeting of

(Budapest) – A smear campaign by a leading pro-government newspaper against independent journalists and activists poisons political and public debate ahead of the April 3, 2022 national elections, Human Rights Watch said today. Video clips recorded without the subjects’ consent and out of context quotes aim to show civil society activists

In many countries social media has become the infrastructure of discussion in the public sphere.

(New York) – The Pakistan government’s amendment to its cybercrimes act is the latest in a concerted campaign to restrict freedom of expression and stifle dissent, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. On February 18, 2022, the government passed an ordinance amending the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act, 2016