Freedom House

One of the leading forces in the 2005–06 prophet Muhammad cartoon controversy, Danish Muslim activist Ahmed Akkari, now regrets his role as agitator and reveals a larger, more deliberate, and more vicious conspiracy behind the crisis than previously known.

In the wake of Narendra Modi’s overwhelming victory in India’s recent elections, commentators have noted the many, daunting challenges facing the new prime minister of the world’s most populous democracy.

While Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has been promoting himself through a public-relations campaign abroad, he has ratcheted up the suppression of critical voices within his own country.

The decline in global press freedom this year was driven in part by major regression in several Middle Eastern states; marked setbacks in Turkey, Ukraine, and a number of countries in East Africa; and deterioration in the relatively open media environment of the United States.

As President Barack Obama travels in Asia to emphasize the United States’ focus on the region, China and its domestic and foreign policies cast large shadows. Political repression in China is often seen as a constant, but the methods of Chinese political control have grown more sophisticated and increasingly affect free expression beyond China’s borders.

Whether across the airwaves, on the Internet, or at the polling booth, dictators are assisted by a range of private actors who are based in free countries but sell their services to unsavory regimes abroad.

Making a statement during International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO-T).

It’s no secret that the Pacific Islands will face rising sea levels, coastal flooding, and deadly storms as a result of climate change, a fact reiterated in this week’s report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Unfortunately, few people realize that these island nations are also home to a disappearing press sector. While […]