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For about twenty years, gatherings of cyclist enthusiasts or ‘Critical Masses’ have been held all over the world to direct public attention to the bikers’ presence on roads. In the Republic of Poland, the movement is quite vigorous.

Secrecy, corruption, lack of accountability, conflicts of interest, and a shortage of political will are the main obstacles to achieving justice in the unsolved, work-related murders of 17 journalists in the Russian Federation since 2000, the Committee to Protect
Journalists said as it released a new investigative report today.

Macedonian Women’s Rights Center held a consultative meeting with UNIFEM Office in FYR Macedonia, with aim to present the recommendations from the NGO sector regarding the draft law on free legal aid, all in order to establish standardized national protection system for the victims of domestic violence.

An opposition rally was brutally disbanded on September 16 in Minsk. Riot policemen prevented journalists from videoing violent arrest detention of demonstrators.

The First Children’s Embassy in the World – Megjashi reacted on September 10th, on TV broadcasting of the child victim of domestic violence, and it called upon the Broadcasting Standard Council of FYR Macedonia to act accordingly the Rulebook for protection of under-aged audience, from programs that can affect their physical, mental and moral development.

Moscow Helsinki Group will hold a conference “Formation of system of public control in Russia” as a part of the project “Prevention of tortures through legal support, education and protection”.
Experts, members of regional Supervising Committees on public control over places of forced imprisonment from 40 regions of Russia, representatives of federal government bodies will participate at the conference.
The participants will discuss actual problems of public control and rights protection of the citizens in the places of forced imprisonment.

Although winning for the seventh time the title of B&H Women’s Football Championship, women’s football team SFK 2000 from Sarajevo still does not have sufficient or any attention and support from the state, society or media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. CURE Foundation tried to stress this issue by making the problem of SFK 2000 the subject of 8th X-PRESS Session.

On 11 September 2009, a Nakhchivan City resident, Mahammad Gurbanov, 55, was placed in a psychiatric hospital by employees of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Internal Affairs Ministry after he complained to the authorities and to the press about corruption and incompetence among employees of the Sadarak customs station. The Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety’s (IRFS) regional correspondent learned of Gurbanov’s detention from his wife, Farida Ismayilova.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has voiced concern over the increased imposition of oppressive edicts by the Al-Shabab movement against the media in Belet-Hawo town in the Gedo region of southwestern Republic of Somalia.

Uganda’s Radio One talk show host Robert Kalundi Serumaga was on Tuesday afternoon released on bail after being charged with sedition in a court in Kampala. Serumaga who spent four days in police custody was accused by the state of “attacking the person of the president during a television show on September 11”.

The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) is deeply concerned by continued restrictions on freedom of expression and the media, including attacks on individual journalists, following last week’s violence in Kampala. The Ugandan government’s decision to shut down four radio stations and to suspend live public debates should be immediately revoked and those found responsible for violations against individual journalists held to account.

On September 12th, CURE Foundation held a regional conference on the adoption of the platform of Women’s Network of B&H. The conference was visited by more than 30 representatives of women rights organization throughout Balkan region, human rights activists, feminists, B&H media and French ambassador in Sarajevo, Maryse Berniau.