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Two days ago, Vasil Hrodnikau, a correspondent for the independent newspaper Narodnaya Volya was found dead, with serious injuries to his head and brain. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation by Belarusian police. -This is the third violent death among independent Belarusian journalists since 2000, Andrej Dynko (right) editor of Nasha Niva, reminded the audience at a seminar at the Human Rights house in Oslo yesterday. (20-OCT-05)
  

Two days ago, Vasil Hrodnikau, a correspondent for the independent newspaper Narodnaya Volya was found dead, with serious injuries to his head and brain. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation by Belarusian police. – This is the third violent death among independent Belarusian journalists since 2000, Andrej Dynko (right) editor of Nasha Niva, reminded the audience at a seminar at the Human Rights House in Oslo yesterday. (20-OCT-05)
 

Seven dissidents, among them Lotfi Hajji, the leader of the Independent Union of Journalists, has gone on hunger strike in Tunisia. In a communique, the seven demand the introduction of freedom of assembly, opinion and expression, the media and information. They also request the release of all political prisoners before the opening of the World Summit on the Information Soceity, to take place in Tunisia in less than a month. (19-OCT-05)
 

On Monday, the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo hosted a meeting with Rebyia Kadeer (right), the Uighur human rights defender and Rafto Prize Laureate of 2004. In the last six years, Kadeer has experienced a rather unique rise, fall and rise again story, from being a successful and celebrated businesswoman to being imprisoned as an enemy of the state to becoming a world famous human rights defender, speaking up against China´s suppression of her people. (19-OCT-05)
 

During the 13-14 October raids, armed people seized hostages and occupied the administrative buildings of the police, local department of the FSB, local department of internal affairs and other places within the city. The average age of the insurgents was 18-20 years. The exact number of injured and killed people is still being counted. The resonance of the events in Nalchik has divided Russian society (18-OCT-2005)
 

The only independent daily in the Republic of Belarus, which represents 65 per cent of the non-governmental print media circulation in the country, went out of business on Monday, 3 October. The two state distributors and the publishing house had all at the same time decided to cancel their contracts, citing different reasons. (18-OCT-05)
 

Among the most common strategies of harassment of human rights defenders, both as individuals and at the organisational level, are accusations of formal, bureaucratic wrongdoings, such as tax evasion. Below is a story of this happening to the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. Read the organisation´s own press release on the issue, signed by Stanislav Dmitrievsky (right) and Oksana Chelysheva (left). (15-OCT-05)
   

The anniversary of the 1915 events in Armenia has generated more public debate on both sides of  the issue than ever before. The impassioned disagreement over the semantics of the matter has assumed what to many seem absurd proportions. The Turkish authorities are ready to settle for the term ‘massacre’; the Armenian diaspora insists on the use of ‘genocide´. Index on Censorship reports (18-OCT-05)
 

As previously reported on this site, Rebyia Kadeer (right), the foremost spokesperson of the Uighurs of the Xinjiang province in the People´s Republic of China, and last year´s Rafto Prize laureate, was released in March 2005. She had then been imprisoned since 1999. Yesterday, she visited the Human Rights House in Oslo. -I will not let my horror silence me. Indeed, my horror pushes me to speak out, she said. Read her full speech below. (18-OCT-05)
 

The anniversary of the 1915 events in the Republic of Armenia has generated more public debate on both sides of the issue than ever before. The disagreement over the semantics of the matter has assumed what to many seem absurd proportions. The Turkish authorities are ready to settle for the term ‘massacre’; the Armenian diaspora insists on the use of ‘genocide’. Index on Censorship reports. (18-OCT-05)
 

Today, the visit of the leader of Republic of Azerbaijan Democratic Party Rasul Guliyev (right) has been expected to Baku after 9 years of emigration. Guliyev held the highest positions in the Republic of Azerbaijan authority during the beginning of presidency of former president Heydar Aliyev. His latest position was the speaker of the National Parliament since 1997 the ADP has been the opposition party and now ADP is a member of the Azadlig Bloc oppositional coalition and Guliyev is a registered candidate for Parliament. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the general prosecutor´s Office declared several times that Guliyev would be arrested immediately if he planned to arrive Republic of Azerbaijan (17-OCT-2005).
 

Rasul Guliyev, Chairman of the opposition Republic of Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP),  was detained in the Ukraine on Monday, on his way back to Republic of Azerbaijan to run for the forthcoming elections.  Both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Prosecutor´s Office had declared several times that Guliyev would be arrested immediately after arrival. Hundreds of Guliyev supporters were arrested in Baku. All human rights defenders were refused to enter the airport territory (17-OCT-05).