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An Index on Censorship event on the politicisation of climate science reflected a growing debate, highlighted by “climategate”. Padraig Reidy, right, news editor of Index on Censorship, reports on an event at the Free Word Centre hosted by Index on Censorship – “Is climate change scepticism the new Holocaust denial?”

As part of the build- to the forthcoming UPR hearing on Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) in February 2010, the Human Rights House of Sarajevo has raised some of the most pressing human rights issues in the country with Alex Lenaerts, Head of Belgian Embassy’s Diplomatic Office in Sarajevo.

Both Britain and Canada’s prime ministers have told Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni that a proposed law that would result in homosexuals being imprisoned for life or even executed needs to be withdrawn. The proposed legislation has created a furore in Western countries with protesters saying it contravenes international human rights legislation.

The appointment of Aleh Praliaskouski, right, to the Minister of Information office does not promise any positive perspectives for the freedom of expression. The Head of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Zhanna Litvina and the media analyst Aliaksandr Klaskouski shared their views on the head of information in the country.

Mushfig Huseynov, a “Bizim yol” newspaper correspondent who is suffering from tuberculosis, is not receiving the right treatment, his father warned. Tofig Huseynov said that the two-month treatment in a specialized treatment facility for prisoners, his son received had not yielded any positive changes in his health.

The Ethiopian National Journalists Association (ENJU) in a statement issued Friday, 4 December 2009, has expressed concern over discriminatory practices by newspaper distributors in the country, a practice it says has forced the closure of some newspapers.

The interview with Jerzy Stępień, a former Judge and President of the Constitutional Tribunal (“Gazeta Świąteczna”, 7-8 November) inclined me to make a few remarks. It is not my aim to refer to the arguments concerning the presence of the cross in school put forward by Jerzy Stępień. I do understand that one can have different views on this matter, but I share the opinion of the European Court of Human Rights.

-Uganda’s government should reform the country’s election laws to improve accountability for election-related crimes and reduce the risk of violence in the upcoming 2011 elections, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Politically motivated violence, intimidation, and bribery of voters have marred previous national elections in the Republic of Uganda, but accountability for such crimes has been very weak.

The 2009 Reporters Without Borders – Fnac Press Freedom Prize was awarded today to Israeli newspaper reporter Amira Hass and the Chechen quarterly Dosh at a ceremony hosted by journalist Bernard de La Villardière at the Espace Fondation EDF in Paris.