ARTICLE 19

IFEX members this week welcomed UN Human Rights Council resolutions on journalists’ safety, support for media workers in Somalia and peaceful association.

UNHRC members are urged to reject a draft resolution on “traditional values” as the concept may be abused to legitimise discrimination against minority groups, silence dissent, and violate human rights.

This brief examines the policy implications of nations’ international human rights obligations on the right to information and the right to health.

ARTICLE 19 undertook a mission to Ciudad Juárez on the border between Mexico and the USA to meet with partners and assess the situation with regard to freedom of expression and freedom of the media following the partial withdrawal of the Federal Police a year ago, and the full withdrawal of the military.

While welcoming Tunisia’s acceptance of 110 of its 125 recommendations during a UN review last week, the IFEX-TMG calls on the country to implement them without delay and end the criminalisation of defamation.

ARTICLE 19’s analysis of a decree on the right to peaceful assembly and procession finds the law to be inconsistent with human rights.

The new owner of the Sunday Leader has sacked editor Frederica Jansz just two months after she received death threats from Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and five months after ARTICLE 19 warned the UN human rights body that the president’s affiliates were buying up the private media.

A blog entry by a Kenyan lawyer considers the government’s legislative and policy responses to the challenges of new media online.