Freedom of expression

28.04.2008 "After eight years of Putin, the country has a rubber-stamp parliament dominated by a single party, whose only stated policy is loyalty to the Kremlin," writes Fred Weir in Moscow.

25.04.2008 Freelance journalist Frank Chikowore was on April 21, 2008 finally charged with public violence, appearing in court almost a week after his arrest together with six other accused persons among them the opposition MDC's director of information and publicity, Luke Tamborinyoka.

23.04.2008 Come May 10 and Burmese citizens will vote to endorse a constitution that took a decade and a half to be drafted. The military junta, however, seems to have its own plans to swing the tide in its favour.

22.04.2008 Frail but fierce Irom Sharmila has been on hunger strike for the last eight years demanding a repeal of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur. The Act empowering armed forces to shoot and kill insurgents continues to be grossly misused in the north-eastern Indian state.

22.04.2008 One of the three writers from Thailand whom the giant retailer Tesco is trying to suppress with serial libel writs has arrived in London at the invitation of the free speech body Index on Censorship.

22.04.2008 Journalist Maxwell Ngambi has been arrested by the Police on suspicion that he wanted to interview a former Speaker of parliament and cabinet minister, Sam Mpasu from a prison without authority.

21.04.2008 A senior reporter, Kaiko Namusa from the state owned Newspaper, Times of Zambia, was assaulted and detained for over an hour at Chipata Central Police for taking pictures of police officers who were manhandling a cyclist for allegedly breaking traffic rules.Asenior reporter, Kaiko Namusa from the state owned Newspaper, Times of Zambia, was assaulted and detained for over an hour at Chipata Central Police for taking pictures of police officers who were manhandling a cyclist for allegedly breaking traffic rules.Asenior reporter, Kaiko Namusa from the state owned Newspaper, Times of Zambia, was assaulted and detained for over an hour at Chipata Central Police for taking pictures of police officers who were manhandling a cyclist for allegedly breaking traffic rules.

19.04.2008

15.04.2008 As a first legislative step towards getting rid of the remnants of Emergency, the new Pakistani government has tabled a bill in the national assembly seeking to revoke the draconian gag imposed on the countryÂ’s electronic media. A separate bill is also round the corner that will undo the restrictions on print media.

11.04.2008 As speculation continues to mount on the outcome of the Zimbabwe presidential election, the number of arrests of journalists continues to rise with two more foreign journalists arrested on April 3, 2008.

10.04.2008 Prominent citizens of India have written to the Prime Minister urging him to reconsider the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Bill, 2006. The proposed law gives authorities the arbitrary power to refuse or cancel registration of organisations, which may put NGOs critical of government policies at risk.

07.04.2008 Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) on March 20, 2008, sought a High court order to bar publication of the private weekly, Zimbabwe Independent, which was about to disclose details relating to the organisation’s director-general Happyton Bonyongwe.

02.04.2008 Amnesty International has released details of prison sentences handed out by the Myanmar junta to 40 protestors. Three have been sentenced for giving water to monks on streets. The action is politically motivated and negates peopleÂ’s peaceful exercise of their human rights, says the international rights body.

02.04.2008 Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku on March 26, 2008 set aside and declared the state-controlled Media and Information Commission’s (MIC) ban against senior journalist Brian Hungwe null and void.

01.04.2008 The walls around McLeod Ganj, the northern Indian town in Himachal Pradesh, home to Dalai Lama, are drawing crowds of exiled Tibetans hungry for news. The community bulletin boards are the latest source of news from home as posters, banners, newspaper cuttings and letters fight the spaces for equal billing.