Human Rights Watch

Russia has introduced significant restrictions to online speech and invasive surveillance of online activity and prosecutes critics under the guise of fighting extremism, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released.

The death of Chinese dissident and public intellectual Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, lays bare the Chinese government’s ruthlessness toward peaceful proponents of human rights and democracy, Human Rights Watch said.

On the one-year anniversary of the death of popular Cambodian activist Kem Ley, civil society organisations from around the world reiterated their call for an independent inquiry.

ARTICLE 19 and 82 other organisations urge “Five Eyes” to support the development and use of secure communications tools and technologies and reject policies that would prevent or undermine the use of strong encryption.

Bangladesh law enforcement authorities have illegally detained hundreds of people since 2013, including scores of opposition activists, and held them in secret detention, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.

Congolese security forces arrested pro-democracy youth activist Jean-Marie Kalonji and his friend and lawyer, Sylva Mbikayi Kabanga, on 23 June 2017. They remain in detention at the military intelligence headquarters without charge or access to family or legal counsel.

Silenced politicians in Kenya and Rwanda, Tanzanian taboos and Nigerian “threats to the state”. This and much more from South Sudan, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire in our June round-up of free expression news.

China releases Liu Xiaobo on medical parole; #FreeThe5KH out on bail; journalists escape jail term in Timor Leste; “Mother Mushroom” sentenced to 10 years