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Ivan Roman, right, was detained by KGB officers for his article covering the economic crisis in the Republic of Belarus. He must write something positive about the authorities, they warned. Otherwise he was threatened with a criminal case.

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of an intense media smear campaign against human rights defenders who work in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) human rights organisations, including Sexual Minorities Republic of Uganda (SMUG).

Novaya Gazeta, the Moscow newspaper that has paid a deadly price for its reporting during a period when the Kremlin has sought to rein in independent media, has been named winner of the International Press Institute’s 2009 Free Media Pioneer Award. Right, Gazeta Editor Dmitry Muratov observing last rites over the coffin of one of the four Novaya Gazeta journalists who have been killed in recent years.

More than 100,000 displaced civilians in Lubero territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo desperately need protection from further attacks by Rwandan militias and Congolese forces, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations peacekeeping force and humanitarian agencies to take urgent steps to increase protection and assistance to the civilians at risk.

The Somali Independent News Agency (SOMINA) was unveiled today in Djibouti by Omar Faruk Osman Nur, right, the secretary-general of the National Union of Somali journalists, and Robert Ménard, the head of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom. It is intended to be an independent source of reliable and objective news about Republic of Somalia, one of Africa’s most troubled countries.

The country that suffered the most from the worst atomic catastrophe in 20th century plans to build its own nuclear power plant. Protesters against murky government plans are forcefully silenced.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) deplores the closure of Jubba Private radio station and the arrest of three journalists working for the station in Baidoa.

85 human rights defenders, representing nearly all countries throughout Africa, were gathered last week to commemorate the achievements of the similar conference in Johannesburg ten years ago, and look ahead at forthcoming challenges. The ‘Joburg + 10’ conference concluded on the 23rd of April, with the announcement of an ambitious, confident declaration. Read the whole Kampala Declaration on Human Rights Defenders below.

Burundian AIDS activists and international human rights groups have condemned a new criminal code that criminalises homosexuality in the central African country. The Burundian Senate overwhelmingly voted against the draft bill in February, but in March the lower house of parliament reversed this decision, and President Pierre Nkurunziza signed it into law on 22 April.