ARTICLE 19

ARTICLE 19 is concerned that a week after a UN independent expert recommended that the United Kingdom review its public order legislation, 21 climate activists have received criminal sentences for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

IFEX members sent a joint letter to President Museveni calling for an end to impunity in cases of police violence against the media, after a violent crackdown on a demonstration in May over media closures.

Burundi’s new media law introduces a requirement for journalists to have set levels of education, fundamentally undermines the protection of journalistic sources and imposes debilitating fines for media organisations who are deemed to be contravening the law.

Nineteen human rights organisations have joined forces to condemn the continued enforced disappearance of Syrian human rights lawyer Khalil Ma’touq whose health has been steadily deterioriating over the past eight months he spent in detention.

ARTICLE 19 welcomes a UN Report on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which recognises the indivisibility of universal human rights and underscores the importance of civil and political rights to development.

ARTICLE 19 is concerned that calls for a government inquiry into the funding of civil society organisations that work to promote safe abortion are part of attempts to restrict public debate on the issue and are an attack on freedom of expression.

A Vietnamese court upheld the convictions of eight activists, reducing the sentences of four; they were arrested in 2011 for critical comments.

ARTICLE 19 is to launch a programme to protect journalists and human rights defenders in Tunisa, following a series of meetings with media workers and civil society groups in the country.