Freedom House

In the run-up to the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on 17 May, planned activities in Burundi, Myanmar, India, Jamaica, and Bangladesh offer a sample of what is being done to counter discrimination even in hostile environments.

The “Putin. War” report was published online on 12 May 2015. The bulk of the research and writing was done by Boris Nemtsov, an opposition figure who was murdered in February 2015.

Legal proceedings that have involved serious rights violations have kept Mayan journalist Pedro Canché in jail since 30 August 2014 on allegations of sabotage.

Organisations call on the Cambodian government, especially the Ministry of Information, the judicial system, media organizations, civil society and development partners to take a number of concrete steps to allow journalism to thrive.

Ukrainian journalist Oles Buzyna was shot dead on Thursday 16 April 2015 in Kiev. He was the former editor-in-chief of Segodnya newspaper and was known for being pro-Russian and a critic of President Petro Poroshenko’s government.

Rasul Jafarov was detained following his participation in a panel at the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE. He organized a Sing for Democracy campaign ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 and was engaged in an effort to draw attention to Azerbaijan’s human rights record ahead of the European Games to be held in June in Baku.

“We should not praise the government for releasing people it had no right to imprison in the first place. Releasing the detainees three days before an election is part of President Bashir’s effort to legitimize a tainted electoral process,” said Vukasin Petrovic, regional director for Africa at Freedom House.

They don’t write for The New York Times or The Daily Mail. And the Swazi government is counting on just that to keep Bheki Makhubu and Thulani Maseko in jail for criticizing the judiciary.