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Election boycott campaign in Belarus is becoming more and more complicated. Activists calling for boycott are detained, fined and imprisoned, while candidates’ speeches are censored or not broadcast on TV.

The expert group of the Belarusian Association of Journalists found out that the Belarusian media do not pay much attention to the topic of parliamentary elections. However, the representatives of BAJ are not welcome in the Supervisory Board on monitoring of compliance with the order and rules of election campaigning in the media.

Russian Association Golos was awarded the Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award 2012 for its outstanding efforts to promote democratic values through free and fair elections in Russia, Secretary General Bjørn Engesland says in a statement today.

The post-revolutionary Tunisian government has already been accused of clamping down on reporters. The ones recently charged include two artists whose crime is creating sculptures that the authorities consider harmful to public order and good morals. Nadia Jelassi’s work is of a veiled woman surrounded by rocks, suggesting she is being stoned, while Mohamed Ben Slama’s work is of a child with ants streaming from a schoolbag that spell out “God”.

On 4 September Iran released two Azerbaijani journalists and poets Farid Huseyn and Shahriyar Hajizade who had been detained arbitrarily in Iran in May for alleged espionage. Free speech organisations welcome the decision and emphasize the absurdity of the charges brought against the journalists.

Экспертная група Беларускай асацыяцыі журналістаў прыйшла да высновы, што беларускія СМІ не надаюць сур’ёзнай увагі тэме парламенцкіх выбараў. Аднак прадстаўнікоў БАЖ не хочуць бачыць у складзе Назіральнай рады па кантролі за захаваннем парадку і правілаў правядзення перадвыбарчай агітацыі ў СМІ.

Агітаваць за байкот выбараў у Беларусі робіцца ўсе складаней: актывістаў затрымліваюць, прысуджаюць штрафы і караюць суткамі арышту, а выступленні кандыдатаў, якія заклікаюць да байкоту, не паказваюць па тэлебачанні.

ARTICLE 19 calls on the Ukrainian government to publicly condemn the killing of environmental information activist, Volodymyr Honcharenko, as a crime against freedom of expression and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice via an effective, independent and speedy process. Volodymyr campaigned for environmental information in Ukraine and died in August.

A group of four men attacked the opposition journalist, Ularbek Baytalak, on the outskirts of Astana, where he was left to die. The journalist works for two opposition newspapers, Dat and Tortinshi bilik, and takes a critical stance towards the current government. The attack on Baytalak comes a few months after fellow opposition journalist Lukpan Akhmendyarov survived being shot and stabbed outside his apartment in April 2012.

The HFHR sent a letter to the Ministers of Justice and Finance and the Prosecutor General, in which it raised the issue of taxes being imposed on the sums awarded as damages under the Excessively Lengthy Proceedings Complaint Act.

The first week of the election campaign in Belarus was marked by a coordinated attack on pro-opposition groups in social networks by the KGB.

The HFHR has issued yet another appeal to the Ministry of Interior urging the same to consider adding to the draft Foreigners Act a provision that would enable parents legally living in Poland to legalise the stay of their children. The direct reason for this new intervention is the case of a three-year old Vietnamese girl who could not have had her stay legalised because she was not born in Poland, despite the fact that her parents lived in Poland legally.