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The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights requested Jan Dworak, the head of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), to disclose detailed information on the procedure of awarding television broadcast licences for the operation of multiplex digital terrestrial broadcasting services.

In January 2012, the first hearing in the proceedings against the head of the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) was held in the Circuit Court in Warsaw. The suit, filed by Bogdan Wróblewski, a journalist with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, involves an infringement of claimant’s personal interests, which allegedly consisted in the CBA’s unlawful acquisition of journalist’s telecommunications data, including his phone records, in years 2005-2007.

Member organisations of the International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan (IPGA) are deeply concerned by the continued politically motivated imprisonment of persons in Azerbaijan for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The IPGA calls on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to take immediate action to ensure the release of these persons and to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its obligations as a Member State.

The “Electronic Human Rights Education for Lawyers (EHREL)” project announces a new call for participants in distance learning program in international human rights law for lawyers from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine,

Article 19 and Index on Censorship stand up against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), that are currently being debated by US Congress. Protecting the rights of creators is an important goal; however, enforcement should not come at the expense of free speech or due process, say the organisations.

Праект “Дыстанцыйнае навучанне адвакатаў правам чалавека” абвешчае набор для ўдзелу ў праграме дыстанцыйнага навучання адвакатаў і юрыстаў з Азербайджана, Беларусі, Малдовы, Расіі і Украіны міжнароднаму праву правоў чалавека.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi confirmed that she will run for a seat in parliament, her party said Tuesday, a move that will infuse April by-elections with legitimacy, star power and historic significance. Suu Kyi said last year that she would run for parliament but had appeared to backtrack since then. A victory would give the Nobel Peace Prize winner and longtime political prisoner a voice in parliament for the first time in her decades-long role as the country’s opposition leader.

On Sunday 15 January, Kazakhstan held early Parliamentary elections after President Nazarbayev expressed that more than one party now should be represented in Parliament and law amendments were made to provide for this. However, despite promises of democratization and the recent period as chair of the OSCE, several violations took place and did not allow for a fair and democratic competition for the seats in Parliament.

In January 2012 the new Hungarian media act entered into force. It is a comprehensive regulation of all types of media, namely printed press, broadcast programming and the Internet. The new legislation adopted by the Hungarian authorities has come in for criticism from some EU members states, the EC and the EP for its non-compliance with the international standards of the freedom of speech and safeguards for media independence.