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-The government should not be creating new laws to enforce provisions written in the reactionary 1930s, says the Irish writer Michael Nugent, right. Nugent is also the chair of the advocacy group Atheist Ireland.

The parliament ruled on 30 June to drop all measures intended to severely restrict NGOs activities. It was with a mixture of joy and surprise that Azerbaijani civil liberties activists received the news that the draft law had been scrapped. But there continues to be grave concern among activists and human rights organisations, reports Vugar Gojayev

Republic of Azerbaijan has a new, harsher religion law and new penalties for producing, selling, circulating, importing and exporting religious literature without state permission, reports Felix Corley of Forum 18.

ARTICLE 19 welcomes the landmark ruling of the High Court in Belfast in the
case of investigative journalist, Suzanne Breen, which decided that a court order
forcing her to hand over her notes would have threatened her life and the lives of her family, and compromised the protection of her sources.

Lawyer Le Cong Dinh (right) has always worked to change the system from within – which is exactly why his arrest is troubling, says Roby Alampay

Huge rallies in Tehran earlier this week saw hundreds of thousands of people defy bans and take to the streets to protest at the declaration that the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had won Friday’s poll over the more moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Fiery television debates, and the tactics of Ahmadinejad’s own supporters, have emboldened Iran’s newspapers, says Meir Javedanfar.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression,
Frank La Rue, has come under extraordinary attack while presenting his first
annual report to the eleventh session of the Human Rights Committee in Geneva
on 2 June 2009.

English PEN is deeply concerned by the harassment of award-winning author, journalist and activist Lydia Cacho, giving rise to fears for her safety. Cacho reports being watched and followed by unknown armed individuals.