Freedom House

A new report by Freedom House catalogues the Turkish government’s actions to suppress freedom of speech, which have intensified since the emergence of a major corruption scandal in December 2013.

195 civil society organisations from around the world have called on the UN to put government accountability and independent media at the centre of a new framework for global development.

Marked by intensified repression in Eurasia and the Middle East, the state of freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2013, according to “Freedom in the World 2014”, Freedom House’s annual report on global political rights and civil liberties.

Following the criminalisation of peaceful protest in Egypt in November 2013, 57 organisations and individuals release joint statement against arrests of Egyptian bloggers and political activists.

Freedom House strongly urges the Chinese government to drop the possible criminal prosecution of human rights activist Guo Feixiong and to release him immediately and unconditionally. Guo, a self-taught legal defender, was arrested in August 2013 for his involvement in campaigns promoting press freedom, political rights, and transparency.

Authorities in Guangzhou, China detained human rights activist and lawyer Liu Shihui when he went to inquire about three members of a grassroots pro-democracy group, Southern Street Movement, who were taken into custody the day before. Liu was transferred out of the police station in the middle of the night on 6 January 2013, and his whereabouts are unknown.

The Zambian government’s growing intolerance for criticism has extended to the media. Journalists have been unlawfully arrested, websites shut down, and nationwide broadcasting licenses revoked in a thinly disguised campaign by the authorities to circumscribe free speech and encourage self-censorship.

IFEX members are calling on the president of Romania to veto proposed changes to the penal code passed by Parliament that would recriminalise insult and libel.