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Quotes costs Turkish journalist prison sentence. A court in Istanbul has sentenced journalist Irfan Aktan to 15 months in prison for his article “Weather Forecast in the Region and in Kandil: There Can be No Solution without a Struggle” published in the bi-monthly journal Express.

In the world rankings State of Eritrea is classified as a country performing weakest in protection of individual’s freedom and press freedom. There is no independent civil society, no independent media and no human rights organizations in State of Eritrea today.

On November 3, 2009 the European Court of Human Rights passes a judgment in the case Lautsi v. Italy (Application no. 30814/06). It ruled unanimously that crucifixes displayed on the walls of Italian public school’s classes are contrary to parents’ right to educate their children in line with their convictions and to children’s right to freedom of religion.

Republic of Poland was one of the Central European countries named in reports by Human Rights Watch and articles in The Washington Post in November 2005 as hosting USA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secret detention places. A few years have since passed and we are now much closer to the truth of Poland’s shameful involvement in the CIA rendition program.

A month after the newspaper Viciebskij Kurjer was banned from circulation, the Vicebsk city court has fined Aleh Barshcheuski, its editor-in-chief for keeping on distributing it. Thus, Belarusian authorities have made yet another violation of freedom of expression and the media.

Back in 1993 there were only 3 Roma students in Macedonian universities, and today, thanks to the quota aimed to encourage higher education of minority communities and the several private universities, this number is around 150. However, many of them do not graduate due to their low standard of living in FYR Macedonia.

Article 19 continues to highlight cases of artists around the world whose right to freedom of expression has been curtailed and abused, and seeks to more effectively promote and defend freedom to create. Here are most important abuses from May 2010.

A library on human rights opened today in the Azerbaijani Human Rights House. The library contains 3,000 books in different languages on human rights, democracy, gender equality and conflict.

1 July 2010 will mark a new era for Belarusian internet users. Many internet websites may be blocked. On that day, regulations prepared by the Ministry of Communication and Information will come into force, concerning material that contradicts law – pornography, extremism, terrorism, etc. Experts say the new regulations can affect sources that may pose a threat to the authorities.