Freedom House

With 11 percent of Pakistan’s 190 million citizens now online, ensuring that the internet is an open space for communication, commerce, and democracy is becoming more important with each additional laptop and smartphone.

“We are shocked by the murder of opposition leader Umarali Kuvvatov, which has all the hallmarks of an assassination,” said Susan Corke, director of Eurasia programs. “It sends a chilling message to all who dare criticize Tajikistan’s president, Emomali Rahmon.”

The mass “UAE 94” trial imprisoned dozens of government critics and reform activists in the United Arab Emirates.

Freedom House offers a timeline that chronicles how an Egyptian social justice movement incubated online, exploded onto the streets, and is now being driven toward extinction.

“Freedom in the World 2015”, Freedom House’s annual report on the condition of political rights and civil liberties, finds that more aggressive tactics by authoritarian regimes and an upsurge in terrorist attacks contributed to a disturbing decline in global freedom in 2014.

Internet users and civil society groups in Hong Kong have endured cyberattacks and debated threats to privacy online in the past. But the situation has worsened significantly since June 2014.

“The DRC government should end this horrific violence against its own citizens and immediately lift the telecommunications blackout that is apparently intended to prevent news of the security forces’ action from being more widely known,” said Vukasin Petrovic, director for Africa programs.

The international community’s response to the current charges leveled against prominent activist Nabeel Rajab has been monumental in denouncing the Criminal Investigations Department and the Bahraini government for their actions.