ARTICLE 19

Companies and individuals operating Internet cafes are no longer permitted to offer programs like Skype, under a new order by the the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. The order comes shortly after amendments threatening free speech were introduced to the Gambian criminal code.

Ricardo Fraga de Oliveira has been forbidden from protesting against a property development project in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In response to a lawsuit filed by the construction company in charge of the development, a court in São Paulo forbade Fraga from protesting in person and on Facebook.

Daniel Alejandro Martínez Bazaldúa, society section photographer for Vanguardia newspaper in Saltillo, Coahuila, was killed on the morning of 24 April 2013. ARTICLE 19 is concerned about transparency in the murder investigation by state authorities.

Over the last ten years there has been an alarming expansion of copyright claims at the expense of human rights protection. The Right to Share Principles show that freedom of speech and the free flow of information and ideas should not and cannot be marginalised by claims to property.

The member states of the United Nations should hold Azerbaijan to account during its Universal Periodic Review on 30 April 2013 for its failure to protect basic human rights, says the International Partnership Group on Azerbaijan.

Jorge Carrasco, a reporter investigating the 2012 murder of his colleague Regina Martínez, received information about a plan to attack him. The plan apparently involves Veracruz government agents.

ARTICLE 19’s Mexico office has received an anonymous letter containing a direct threat of reprisal for the work that the staff undertakes to protect journalists from violence.

In what could become a landmark decision for freedom of expression on the Internet, the UK Supreme Court found that in the “Meltwater case” unauthorised browsing of copyrighted material was legitimate.