Censorship

(Beirut) – Candidates for Lebanon’s May 15, 2022, parliamentary elections should make commitments to support key reforms that would improve the human rights situation in the country, Human Rights Watch said today in letters to major political parties and candidates citing 10 key areas for reform. All candidates are encouraged

(Johannesburg) – Angolan authorities should immediately drop criminal charges against 22 protesters arrested during peaceful protests in Luanda on April 9, 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. The activists had gathered to march against the detention of political prisoners and to call for free and fair elections. Those detained included Laurinda

(Berlin) – Russia’s Justice Ministry on April 8, 2022 canceled the registration of Human Rights Watch, along with Amnesty International and 13 other offices of foreign nongovernmental organizations and foundations, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch had maintained an office in Russia for 30 years. The action was

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to address panicked Twitter employees following his purchase of a large portion of Twitter stock and appointment to the censor-happy company’s board of directors.

Despite alleged free speech advocate Elon Musk’s purchase of a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, the company reportedly has no plans to reinstate the accounts of former President Donald Trump and the many other conservatives blacklisted by the censor-happy platform. The company defied Musk in a statement, saying:

(Istanbul) – The Turkish government should reverse a plan approved by the justice minister and due to be rubber-stamped by a court decision to transfer the case regarding the Saudi state-sponsored murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 7, 2022, an Istanbul

An automatic word monitor in a new Amazon worker chat app will ban a variety of words and phrases, such as “union,” “fairness,” “pay raise,” “slave labor,” and “master,” among other terms, according to internal documents obtained by the Intercept. Amazon will block and flag employee posts on an internal

(Bishkek) – Kyrgyzstan authorities have stepped up the harassment of journalists and independent media with a slew of criminal investigations into their work in recent months, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 29, 2022, following a motion by the Prosecutor General’s Office, a Bishkek district court found that a

(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately release all remaining imprisoned students of the Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, Human Rights Watch said today.

“It’s so hard to report from Afghanistan anymore,” a journalist in the eastern province of Nangarhar told me.

On Friday, the Australian parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security released their long-awaited report examining foreign interference at Australian universities.

A magistrate in India’s Jammu and Kashmir region approved the detention of the respected Kashmiri journalist and editor Fahad Shah under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) on the grounds that he had been “misguiding common masses by circulating fake news against the government and its policies.

(Bishkek) – Kyrgyz authorities should immediately repeal restrictions that prohibit any gatherings in front of the Russian Embassy in Bishkek, Human Rights Watch said today.

(Berlin) – Russian authorities have cracked down on journalists, human rights defenders, and activists in an effort to silence any criticism of the war in Ukraine, Human Rights Watch said today.

In many Eastern European and Central Asian countries, media discourse suffers from the freedom of expression not being respected.