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On April 22, ten young activists detained during the entrepreneurs’ demonstration in Minsk 10 January received their sentences, varying from fines of 1100 Euro to 1.5 years´ imprisonment. Yesterday, Siarhei Parsiukevich, one of the entrepreneurs leaders, was given 2.5 years behind bars.

Reporters Without Borders called yesterday for the foreign news media to be allowed back immediately into Tibet and nearby provinces with a Tibetan population, where the Chinese authorities have maintained a news blackout and have been conducting a massive propaganda campaign for the past six weeks. (24-APR-08)
 

Journalist Arat Dink was among those honoured at the 2008 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards on 21 April. The Awards honour people around the world who have made outstanding contributions to free expression. (23-APR-08)

On 25 March, many journalists covering the demonstration in Minsk suffered the riot police´s actions. Two days later KGB officers carried out searches all over the country at the offices of independent mass media as well as in journalists´ private homes. Among the victims were Nasha Niva newspaper journalist Dmitry Linkevich, right, who was beaten and detained and Siamen Pechanka, who was detained for 15 days. (18-APR-08)
 

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled the Russian Federation should pay 72,000 Euros ($112,000) in compensation to a resident of the Chechen Republic, whose two relatives went missing in May 2001. Currently, a total of 23,000 temporary cases are pending against the Russian Federation, around 26% of the total. (21-APR-08)
 

On 14 April 2008, TNS OBOP published a study regarding the issue of: ´Our perception of refugees´. The study was based on a sample of 1000 randomly selected residents of Warsaw and 500 people from the nearby town of Gora Kalwaria, where a refugee center is located. It is difficult for refugees to become assimilated with the Polish society. Why? (18-APR-08)
 

Several newspapers in the Sudanese capital Khartoum have been prevented from publishing this week, as security agents press ahead with a crackdown on the media that has been ongoing since early February. On 13 April newspaper editors were informed by telephone that from the following day onwards they would be required to submit a copy of every edition to the premises of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) for approval by security agents prior to publication. (18-APR-08)
 

On 25 March, many journalists covering the demonstration in Minsk suffered the riot police´s actions. Two days later KGB officers carried out searches all over the country at the offices of independent mass media as well as in journalists´ private homes. Among the victims were Nasha Niva newspaper journalist Dmitry Linkevich, right, who was beaten and detained and Siamen Pechanka, who was detained for 15 days. (18-APR-08)
 

The United Nations announced today that it will close its human rights office in Angola, after authorities in the southern African nation decided not to sign an agreement that would have formally established the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the country. (18-APR-08)
 

Yelena Tregubova (right), a Russian journalist, who published a critical book about Vladimir Putin and his environment, fot a political asylum in Great Britain. She escaped the Russian Federation after the bomb exploded outside her apartment. Returning home would have been a mortal danger. A few years later, in similar circumstances, Anna Politkovskaya was murdered. (17-APR-08)
 

ARTICLE 19 and the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) are among those condemning the murder of two community journalists in Mexico on 7 April. Teresa Bautisto Merion and Felicitas Martinez Sanchez are the latest victims of an ongoing campaign against journalists in the state of Oaxaca. (17-APR-08)

This was the question left hanging in the air by Kesang Takla, right, Tibet’s Minister for International Relations, in her press conference at the Human Rights House in Oslo today. Takla further emphasized that the official Tibetan position is not that the Olympics should not have been held in the People´s Republic of China, or that the rest of the world ought to boycott the forthcoming Summer Games, but that each participating individual and nation should listen to their conscience and act accordingly. (16-APR-08)