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The panel on the Middle East Revolution will examine what free speech means today. Has the internet revolutionised how the oppressed voice their dissent?

Index on Censorship presents ‘Beyond Belief’, a half day conference on police, policy and freedom of expression in the arts.

Acclaimed poet Stephen Spender was politically active throughout his life. Fiercely committed to artistic freedom, in 1972 he founded Index on Censorship. In the late 1970s he served as President of English PEN, campaigning for the right to freedom of expression for writers in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries.

In a new crackdown against the independent press, Belarusian police briefly detained and beat more than a dozen reporters, and broke their equipment at June 29 protest rally in Minsk and Brest, according to news reports and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sources in Belarus.

Маўклівыя акцыі пратэсту ў Беларусі завяршаюцца збіццем і затрыманнямі мірных грамадзянаў і журналістаў. Пасля акцыі, што прайшла па ўсёй краіне 29 чэрвеня, былі затрыманыя каля 300 чалавек. Такія дзеянні уладаў выклікалі асуджэнне міжнарожнай супольнасці.

A statement demanding urgent action by the state of Mexico to protect migrants and human rights defenders was released by Rafto Laureate José Raúl Vera Lopéz, Rafto Foundation and other organizations in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico on 16 June 2011.

The Human Rights Defender (RPO) filed motion with the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) to conduct a constitutional review of the laws governing the use of technical measures as part of investigative techniques used by law enforcement agencies. The RPO cites the HFHR’s statement on the matter.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has made a critical assessment of the legislative process for the amendment of a number of laws needed to properly organise the European Football Championships EURO 2012. In particular, the HFHR has reservations regarding the course of the work done so far.

English PEN is shocked by the life sentence handed down to academic and human rights activist Dr Abdul-Jalil Alsingace on 22 June 2011 for his peaceful opposition activities. He is among twenty-one activists convicted this morning of ‘plotting to overthrow the government’ after a violent crackdown on peaceful opposition protestors in the capital, Manama. Eight of twenty-one activists were sentenced to life imprisonment.

While Tajik Government seeks to amend the new media law, which contains a number of positive features, including a proclamation of mass media freedom, journalist Urinboy Usmonov, a reporter for the BBC Central Asian Service for the last ten years, was arrested in Tajikistan last week for alleged ties to an extremist group. There is a widespread belief that his arrest was an attempt to censor coverage of sensitive political and religious issues.

At the conference in London of the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), Norway has pledged to double the amount of funding it currently provides for vaccinating poorer children around the world against preventable diseases like pneumonia. Doctors Without Borders Norway evaluates this is as an important step in the right direction.

The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in Belarus while EU Council of Ministers imposed sanctions on the business of Mr Lukashenka’s “personal banker”. The EU has also introduced an embargo on export of weapons and materials that can be used to suppress the society to Belarus.