International Press Institute (IPI)

“Turkey’s government appears to be willing to stop at no end to muzzle those who dare to criticise the policies of the president and the ruling AKP, much less those who point out alleged wrongdoing.”

Free expression organisations join the Media Foundation for West Africa in calling on African regional body to pressure The Gambia to release journalist Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay.

In a partial victory for media freedom, the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court invalidated provisions in the country’s press law criminalising defamation of government bodies and public officials, but declined to strike down criminal defamation more broadly.

Following up on a meeting with John Kerry in 2015, international organisations urged him to implement the State Department’s journalist safety roadmap and to send a message to posts worldwide to set out new protocols on dealing with imperilled journalists.

“Mr. Czuchnowski’s article was clearly labelled as an opinion piece and it proceeded to express a viewpoint on a matter of political nature that is unquestionably in the public interest. There is almost no room in such circumstances for a libel claim, let alone one lodged by the governing party itself.”

Civil society groups express concern over the potential for overbroad anti-extremism practices to limit free expression

The charges against both journalists include “gathering secret state documents for the purposes of political and military espionage” and “deliberate support for a terrorist organization without being a member”.

From lethal attacks on the media in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the case of the missing Hong Kong publishers, to a campaign to block government interference with Australia’s national broadcaster, we present a month of events that are changing the free expression landscape in the region.