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Iran continues to crack down on brave people struggling with propaganda and fighting for human rights in the country. On 15 July international nongovernmental organisations Index on Censorship, Article 19, Committee to Protect Journalists and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression expressed their concern to Iranian authorities about the recent wave of arrests of journalists and film makers in Iran and ask them to immediately release all unjustly detained.

English PEN protests the incommunicado detention of “Awramba Times” deputy editor Woubshet Taye and “Feteh” columnist Reeyot Alemu, who were arrested on 19 and 21 June 2011 respectively. Neither has been charged to date but it is thought that both were arrested under Ethiopia’s 2009 antiterrorism law, which allows for prison sentences of up to 20 years. On 30 June two Swedish journalists have been also detained without charge in eastern Ethiopia.

Yasmine El Rashidi on Revolution in Egypt as part of The Shubbak Festival — The People Demand Al-Sha`ab Yurid.

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.

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.

A public debate to celebrate the launch of the new issue of Index on Censorship magazine, Privacy is dead! Long live privacy.