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On Sunday, 2 March 2008 the Russian citizens made their decision and elected a new President. The victory of Dmitry Medvedev, successor of Vladimir Putin, was predictable. According to the last information he gathered 70, 21% of the 98, and 78% counted votes. The European observers called the elections “not free and fair”. (03-MAR-08)
 

The Norwegian Tibet Committee (NTC) invites to an open meeting with Wang Lixiong, the husband of Tsering Woeser, right, last year´s winner of the Norwegian Authors´ Association´s (NFF) Freedom of Expression award. Chinese authorities has effectively prevented Woeser, who is invited to NFF´s annual meeting 8 March, from travelling by not issuing her with a passport. ((03-MAR-08)
 

Despite protests from the International Olympic Committee that it has little responsibility for promoting certain political or social developments in host countries for mega-events, The Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 is one of the clearest examples that many people consider sport, politics and the media to be intimately linked. Right, Sverre Wilhelmsen, co-hosting the seminar. (03-MAR-08)
 

Of the seven nominations for the Free Press of Eastern Europe Gerd Bucerius (ZEIT) Award Human Rights House Foundation was involved in, four were officially named winners today. In addition to the two Belarusian winners, HRH F was involved in the successful nominations of one Azeri and one Russian journalist. (03-MAR-08)
 

The 3rd anniversary of the murder of “Monitor” magazine Editor-in-chief Elmar Huseynov was commemorated by national organizations with a number of arrangements. The lack of progress made in the murder investigation over the past three years is a major conclusion and concern of the human rights activists. (03-MAR-08)
 

A delegation of “experts” from the Ministry of Public Security of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is in the Republic of Poland, and according to Polish newspapers its officials are interrogating their compatriots. – They are doing this only in the presence of Polish civil servants – assures the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration (MSWiA). – That is not true – say the interrogated Vietnamese. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has also taken a position in this case. (29-FEB-08)

President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga, right, Thursday signed a historic agreement to end Kenya’s post-election political crisis. Under the deal brokered by chief mediator Kofi Annan and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the leaders agreed to form a coalition government which will radically alter the way Republic of Kenya will be governed . (29-FEB-08)
 

A delegation of ‘experts’ from the Ministry of Public Security of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is in the Republic of Poland, and according to Polish newspapers its officials are interrogating their compatriots. – They are doing this only in the presence of Polish civil servants – assures the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration (MSWiA). – That is not true – say the interrogated Vietnamese. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has also taken a position in this case. (29-FEB-08)
 

The Kofi Annan-lead negotiations between PNU and ODM have made so little progress for the last couple of weeks that Annan, right, has announced a time-out. And while many have held their breath in hopeful anticipation that a political solution will be found, ever larger parts of the people are losing patience and are arming and organising themselves in tribal armies, ready to strike. (28-FEB-08)
 

Military defence, oil and freedom of expression. How do these interests go together? This is the question for a seminar that the Norwegian Helsinki Committee will host on Wednesday 5 March at the Human Rights House in Oslo. The backdrop is that while Norway and the Russian Federation have developed close relations over their joint commercial interests in developing the Barents region, reports have been ticking in about violations of a broad spectre of human rights, but particularly of journalists´ rights. (25-FEB-08)
 

A video recording about #14 Prison, where imprisoned “Azadlig” newspaper satiric/journalist Sakit Zahidov is being kept, was broadcast in ANS TV on 17 February, prison chief Arshad Hasanov assessed the activity of the prison positively, however according to the records the IRFS has, enough torture and other unpleasant incidents happened in this prison. (24-FEB-08)
   

On 19 February in the International Press Center a coalition of journalist organizations presented “Results of Monitoring of Adherence to Ethics in Azerbaijani Press Project.” According to the monitoring results, ”the major problem of Azerbaijani journalism is that there is not an outlet to sources. Irregardless of being a governmental or non-governmental newspaper, the mass media must adhere to the rules or leave the press.” (22-FEB-08)