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After the recent execution of four Kurdish political prisoners on charges of moharabeh’ (enmity against God), human rights organisation Article 19 is very concerned that the execution of Zeinab Jalalian and 15 other Kurdish political prisoners convicted of the same charge is imminent.

On 1 July a group of journalists, artists and campaigners gathered outside the embassy of Republic of Belarus in London to express their dissatisfaction with recent measures taken by the Belarusian regime to increase censorship in the internet. Presidential decree that went into force on 1 July in the Republic of Belarus allows the monitoring of all national internet usage and empowers the authorities to block websites that provide information from independent sources.

On 24 June, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Resolution on the functioning of democratic institutions in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Article 19, the Human Rights House Foundation, the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee welcome the adoption of the resolution and call upon the Azerbaijani government to implement the recommendations contained in the resolution.

Human rights organisation Article 19 welcomes the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s (PACE) adoption of a resolution and recommendation on legal remedies for human rights violations in the North Caucasus. Article 19 urges the Russian government to address the violations and to adopt comprehensive measures, specifically relating to the right to freedom of expression

Performance of ‘Another Sky: Voices of Conscience from around the world’, directed by Abbie Bergstrom and Susie Christensen and featuring seven King’s students, is composed of extracts from English PEN’s 2007 anthology of the work of persecuted and imprisoned writers.

English PEN’s Honorary Member, publisher and human rights activist Ragip Zarakolu who has been subject to harassment, trials and periods of imprisonment since the 1970s, was acquitted at a hearing on 10 June. On trial in the Republic of Turkey since May 2009, Zarakolu was facing a prison sentence of more than seven years for publishing the novel More difficult Decisions than Death written by N. Mehmet Güler.

The twelfth of June is the anniversary of the disputed Iranian presidential election. The ensuing events of last summer challenged assumptions about the political impact of the media, especially the internet, on Iranian society. Mahmood Enayat is a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, presents his thoughts about the role of internet in Islamic Republic of Iran today.

Quotes costs Turkish journalist prison sentence. A court in Istanbul has sentenced journalist Irfan Aktan to 15 months in prison for his article “Weather Forecast in the Region and in Kandil: There Can be No Solution without a Struggle” published in the bi-monthly journal Express.

The application for the 2011 session of the annual Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at Columbia University is now available.