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English PEN, Article 19 and Index on Censorship welcome the Government’s announcement that it will bring a Defamation Bill before Parliament. This is a major milestone in Libel Reform Campaign to widen the space for free expression in the UK and around the world.

Маці і сястра Уладзіслава Кавалёва, расстралянага ў сакавіку 2012 г., звярнуліся да прэзідэнта Беларусі Аляксандра Лукашэнкі і чыноўнікаў з пытаннямі наконт пунктаў у беларускім заканадаўстве, паводле якіх целы асуджаных на смерць не выдаюцца сваякам.

Azerbaijani and international NGOs are disappointed with the European Broadcasting Union’s lack of effort to ensure freedom of expression and independence of media in Azerbaijan, just weeks before the Eurovision contest.

The procedure employed to amend the Public Information Act fell short of the constitutional requirements for the legislative process, held the Constitutional Tribunal last week, deciding the motion brought by Poland’s President.

Armenia’s review by the CAT this week will evaluate its progress on issues of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The NGO coalition report shows that there is still much work to do.

The new Head of the Rafto Foundation’s Board of Directors is Gunnar Sørbø. He is a Senior Researcher at Christian Michelsen Research Institute (CMI) in Bergen.

Beginning May 2010, a number of criminal cases were opened against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. On 11 October 2011 she was found guilty of abuse of power, and sentenced to seven years in jail. Norwegian Helsinki Committee considers her case to be politically motivated.

The Circuit Court in Cracow found Prof. Legutko, a former conservative education minister, currently a member of the European Parliament, in breach of the personal interests of two Wrocław secondary school students. Mr Legutko had called them, among other things, “snots spoilt by their parents” and named their actions “a typical, infantile tantrum”.

These two post-soviet states are on the new Committee‘s to Protect Journalists (CPJ) list of ten countries in the world where free media is most heavily censored. Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are the runners-up.