Digital Rights

Free expression online: a blogger is silenced, a website is blocked, your privacy is compromised.

3707 articles
Photojournalists hold a sit-in in front of the publishing house of the newspapers 'El Comercio' and 'Peru 21' demanding that they cover medical expenses for a journalist injured on assignment, in Lima, Peru, 24 January 2017, Fotoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

UN must translate words into action on journalists’ safety

According to the UN, 68 journalists have been killed globally in 2018 to date. Prospects for justice in these cases are remote: for the 530 killings recorded between 2012 and 2016, the rate of impunity is 90%.

A man walking by an ATM, in Barcelona, Spain, 17 May 2017, Joan Cros Garcia/Corbis via Getty Images

EFF to court: The First Amendment protects criticism of patent trolls

EFF has submitted an amicus brief to the New Hampshire Supreme Court asking it to affirm a lower court ruling that found criticism of a patent owner was not defamatory.

Members of the self-styled Libyan National Army fire mortars during clashes with militants in Benghazi's central Akhribish district, 19 July 2017, ABDULLAH DOMA/AFP/Getty Images

What role does Facebook play in Libya’s civil war?

While Facebook played a key role in the 2011 revolution against Gaddafi, different armed groups vying for control have since been using the platform to find, threaten and silence critics and opponents.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (CL) presents Burkina Faso's Minister of Basic Education and Literacy with a new laptop during a visit to Manegda Primary School in Burkina Faso, 23 April 2008, Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

Internet freedom under threat as crackdown on journalists and bloggers rises

Increasingly, internet users especially journalists, bloggers and activists, who criticise government and state officials suffer attacks, arrests, detentions and abductions for the contents of their posts online.

A general view of the 24-hour operations room at Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, UK on 17 November 2015, Ben Birchall/AFP/Getty Images

ECtHR: UK mass surveillance violates rights to privacy and free expression

According to the European Court of Human Rights, the UK’s mass interception programme “is incapable of keeping the ‘interference'” with fundamental rights to what is “necessary in a democratic society”.

Ethnic Uighurs take part in a protest urging the European Union to call upon China to respect human rights in the Chinese Xinjiang region, in Brussels, Belgium, 27 April 2018, EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

Massive crackdown on Turkic Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region

This statement was originally published on hrw.org on 9 September 2018. The Chinese government is conducting a mass, systematic campaign of human rights violations against Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang in northwestern China. The 117-page report, “‘Eradicating Ideological Viruses’: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims,” presents new evidence of the Chinese government’s mass arbitrary detention, […]

Mexico's Minister of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo (L) looks on as Canadian Foreign Affairs minister Chrystia Freeland speaks to the press at the closing of the NAFTA meetings in Montreal, Quebec, 29 January 2018, PETER MCCABE/AFP/Getty Images

New NAFTA agreement would threaten Canadian digital rights if signed

The announcement that the United States and Mexico had reached a tentative agreement on NAFTA has sent Canadian diplomats scrambling, and has digital rights advocates seriously concerned.

A photojournalist for Turkey's Anadolu Agency lies on the ground after being shot with rubber bullets by the Israeli forces while covering demonstrations in the village of Ras Karkar near Ramallah, West Bank, 4 September 2018, Shadi Hatem/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Activists’ relatives targeted, Bahrain advocacy, Israel arrests Palestinian journalists

A roundup of key free expression news in the Middle East and North Africa, based on IFEX member reports.

People protest outside the headquarters of 'Bugun' newspaper and Kanalturk television station in Istanbul during a demonstration against the Turkish government's crackdown on media outlets, 28 October 2015, OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images

Turkey: Over 50 journalists currently face trial on “terrorist propaganda” charges

As summer ends, the trials of Turkish journalists on the catch-all charge of ‘terrorist propaganda’ resume; many face very heavy sentences if convicted.

An Iraqi youth stretches his eye as a US soldier scans his iris using a biometrics digital system camera in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, 5 May 2008, MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images

A snapshot of digital rights coverage in the MENA region

SMEX interviewed 15 MENA journalists and civil society researchers to discuss challenges and opportunities of covering digital rights.

An Egyptian protester streams a demonstration via Skype as people gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square, 20 December 2011, MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images

Egypt’s new cybercrime law legalizes Internet censorship

The “cybercrime law” that Egypt’s President Sisi signed on 18 August legalizes and reinforces the existing censorship and blocking of websites and criminalizes both those who operate sites and those who use them.

Reality Winner, an intellgence industry contractor, exits the Augusta Courthouse in Augusta, Georgia, 8 June 2017, Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Reality Winner sentence has troubling ramifications for whistleblowers, information

A U.S. District Court judge accepted the terms of Reality Winner’s plea agreement, under which she will serve 63 months in prison. This is the longest sentence ever received by a federal defendant accused of making an unauthorized disclosure to the media.

A woman raises her hands in prayer at a Sufi shrine in Kahsmir, India, 29 August 2017, Saqib Majeed / Barcroft Images / Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Sufi website journalists sentenced to long jail terms, flogging in Iran

RSF condemns the extremely harsh sentences that a Tehran revolutionary court passed last week on six more people who edited or wrote for independent site Majzooban Noor.

The owner of an internet cafe checks a computer, in the city of Adama, Ethiopia, 4 April 2018, SOLAN KOLLI/AFP/Getty Images

AFEX backs ACHPR condemnation of restrictive online regulations in East Africa

The African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) has issued a statement backing the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR)’s condemnation of the increased adoption of stringent laws regulating digital space.

A commuter (R) walks past a government advertisement reading 'sharing a lie makes u a liar' at a train station in downtown Kuala Lumpur, 26 March 2018, MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images

Malaysia’s repeal of Anti-Fake News Act must be followed by broader reforms

ARTICLE 19 says further action is needed by Malaysia’s new government to protect the rights of Malaysians, and calls for a far-reaching and comprehensive program of legislative reform.

Blogger Le Dinh Luong listens to the court verdict in Nghe An province, Vietnam, 16 August 2018, VIETNAM NEWS AGENCY/AFP/Getty Images

Vietnamese blogger and activist Le Dinh Luong gets 20-year jail sentence

It is the longest sentence ever received in Vietnam for trying to provide the public with information.