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The PEN delegation visited Turkey from 12 – 18 November. PEN International and PEN branches from the USA, Sweden, England, Turkey and Norway participated. Meeting with President Abdullah Gül in Ankara on 13 November, the delegation asked that Turkey took concrete action to stop the alarming increase in the number of writers, journalists, translators and publishers who are detained or prosecuted in the country.

On 6 December Kazbek Gekkiyev, a journalist on the local TV station, was murdered in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria on his way home. His death coincided with the launch of the Speak Justice Campaign. Its aim is to break the terrible cycle of murder and impunity currently experienced by journalists around the world.

The IGPPD supported the proposal of the HFHR which advocates that the type of information included on case lists should be regulated by universally applicable legislation. n October 2012, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights addressed the Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data on the issue of entering personal data in case lists displayed in courts. The HFHR requested the IGPPD to consider bringing this problem to the attention of the Minister of Justice.

Open Society Foundations and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights have the pleasure to announce the next of the series of Marek Nowicki memorial lectures. Lecture entitled “Constitutional Interdependence between the Constitutional Tribunal and the Human Rights Defender. Human Rights Protection” will be held by Professor Ewa Łętowska.

4 снежня суд пастанавіў накіраваць палітвязня Мікалая Дзядка (на фота) для далейшага адбыцця пакарання ў турму. Прычынай стала тое, што яго прызналі нібыта «злосным парушальнікам рэжыму» ў калоніі, дзе ён адбываў пакаранне папярэдне.

On 29 October Belarusian lawyers and human rights defenders, the participants of the “International Law in Advocacy” program met with Ombudsman of Ukraine Valeriya Lutkovska (right) in Kiev at the the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

The office of Norwegain Helsinki Committee partner in Belarus, prominent NGO ‘Viasna’, led by the imprisoned human rights defender Ales Bialiatski, was confiscated on 26 November. The move was the last fulfilment of the illegal conviction of Bialiatski just over one year ago. NHC has protested this last blow against Viasna through the network Civil Society Platform.

FIAN International and other NGOs denounce the health plight of hunger-striking farmers arbitrarily imprisoned in Paraguay.

On 29 November 2012 Lord Justice Leveson issued a report on how the press should be reformed in the UK. Free speech organisations welcome the proposal for swift and low cost dispute resolution. However they express serious concerns about the incentive to create an “independent” press regulator underpinned by legislation.