Adil Soz – International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech

The editor of the independent weekly newspaper “Vzglyad” was granted a pardon and released after nearly two months in a pre-trial detention centre in Almaty.

Fifty IFEX members and other rights groups call on the Bahrain authorities to release from prison human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, whose life is at risk since beginning a hunger strike on 8 February.

Twenty-nine IFEX members have signed a letter to the Prosecutor General about the detention of editor Igor Vinyavsky, whose detention is believed to be politically motivated, calling for him to be released and for the evidence leading to his arrest to be made public.

Gennady Pavlyuk, who wrote under the pseudonym Ibrahim Rustambek, died after he was bound in tape and pushed out of the window of an apartment building in Almaty.

Adil Soz and seven other media organisations say that parts of the proposed “Law on Television and Radio Broadcasting” do not conform with international access to information standards.

Some of the blogs on the portal allegedly violated the law on “disseminating materials containing propaganda for terrorism, religious extremism, and incitement to commit acts of terrorism”.

The new law stipulates that legal bodies suing mass media outlets and journalists “for the protection of honor, dignity, and business reputation” cannot claim financial compensation for moral damages.

Forty-two IFEX members and 15 partners appealed for global attention to stop detention, torture and threats to journalists and free expression activists, including to IFEX member Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.