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The director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, issued on 19 December the interim guidelines on how prosecutors should deal with comments made using social media. The guidelines are welcomed by free speech organizations but practical application remains to be seen.

Since 4 December 2012 courts in Kazakhstan have banned news website Stan.tv, the opposition television channel K-Plus and two newspapers Golos Respubliki and Vzglyad, their affiliated newspapers and online content. In November this year an Almaty court ordered the unregistered opposition group Alga! to suspend its activities immediately.

On 6 December Kazbek Gekkiyev, a journalist on the local TV station, was murdered in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria on his way home. His death coincided with the launch of the Speak Justice Campaign. Its aim is to break the terrible cycle of murder and impunity currently experienced by journalists around the world.

English PEN encourages its members and supporters to send seasonal greetings to imprisoned writers and their families.

On 29 November 2012 Lord Justice Leveson issued a report on how the press should be reformed in the UK. Free speech organisations welcome the proposal for swift and low cost dispute resolution. However they express serious concerns about the incentive to create an “independent” press regulator underpinned by legislation.

English PEN, in partnership with YouGov, invites you to join us for a breakfast panel debate on Thursday, 6 December to discuss the implications of Sir Brian Leveson’s proposals for press regulation and press freedom.

Index on Censorship and the Frontline Club will be bringing together a reactive debate, with former Daily Star reporter Richard Peppiat, Media Standards Trust Director Martin Moore and others to be announced, chaired by the BBC’s Torin Douglas, to discuss the findings of the Lord Justice Leveson report and what it will mean for the future of the British press.

The International Day to End Impunity, launched on 23 November 2011, marks the anniversary of the 2009 Ampatuan massacre in the Philippines, when 32 journalists and media workers were murdered. To this day, not a single suspect has been convicted. More than 630 other journalists have been targeted and murdered worldwide in direct retaliation for their reporting since 1992.

This week a delegation of 20 PEN members from around the world, including English PEN director Jo Glanville, met with the Turkish President Abdullah Gül, Minister for European Union Affairs Egemen Bağış and president of the Human Rights Association Öztürk Türkdoğan. The delegation called for release and reform of laws stifling Turkey’s writers, publishers, translators, and journalists.