ARTICLE 19

In 2014 and 2015, thousands of people in the metropolitan region of São Paulo lived with daily cuts to the water supply. At the time, the public agencies responsible for management of the crisis were widely criticised, particularly because of the lack of transparency in how the agencies were working to mitigate the situation.

“Beyond the simple problem of a lack of evidence, there are serious concerns regarding the indictment which suggest it has been written to obfuscate facts and to implicate the journalists in involvement in the Balyoz case, an already controversial story, to limit public support for their situation.”

Civil society groups ask ECOSOC to reconsider granting valued press freedom group and IFEX member, The Committee to Protect Journalists, consultative status at the UN.

Independent journalists and human rights defenders are feeling the wrath of the government, as arrests become increasingly common.

Salvador Olmos García, an announcer for the Tu Un Ñuu Savi community radio station, was assassinated by municipal police officers in Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca state, on the morning of 26 June 2016.

ARTICLE 19 and more than 80 other organisations have called on states at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to support a resolution on human rights and the Internet, and to reject attempts led by Russia and China to weaken it. The resolution will be considered for adoption of 30 June.

The statement shows global support for the creation of an independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, to report to the UN Human Rights Council annually on violence and discrimination against LGBT and intersex people.

“The Special Rapporteur’s report recognises that it is overwhelmingly private actors who create, maintain and operate the infrastructure and spaces for freedom of expression and access to information.”