Showing Archived Posts

As Egypt Sentences More Activists, Rights Groups Speak Out

Posted February 26th, 2015 at 3:10 am (UTC+0)
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Just last Sunday, Egyptian President President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi admitted that “innocent youths” may be held in Egyptian prisons, suggesting he would work for their release. The very next day, however, a Cairo court sentenced prominent Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to five years in jail and fined him the equivalent of $13,000. El-Fattah […]

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‘I Can’t Breathe’: Pussy Riot Releases Haunting New Video

Posted February 20th, 2015 at 1:23 pm (UTC+0)
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One of my colleagues here at the VOA, corruption correspondent Jeffrey Young, drew my attention today to a new video by Russian “opposition rock” group, Pussy Riot–its first English-language single–titled “I Can’t Breathe.” It’s a tough video to watch:  Singers Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova, dressed in the uniforms of Russia’s special riot police, are […]

Prominent Egyptian Youth Activist Gets Life In Prison

Posted February 4th, 2015 at 3:36 pm (UTC+0)
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December 3, 2013: Ahmed Douma, an Egyptian youth activist who had played a prominent role in the April 6 youth movement, tweeted, “Security forces are arresting me this minute and taking me to Al-Basateen police station.” Later, he tweeted for the last time as a free man: “I’m now at Al-Basateen police station. I don’t […]

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‘Darkest Day’ For France, For Journalism

Posted January 7th, 2015 at 4:21 pm (UTC+0)
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Irreverent? Admittedly.  Tasteless?  Often.  The French newspaper Charlie Hebdo regularly exercised a right to freedom of speech through satire. Everyone was a target–not just Islam and its radicals:  In a December issue, Charlie published a cover cartoon depicting a garish Virgin Mary giving birth to the infant Jesus. Today, the publication became a target itself.  […]

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Update: Letter From Jailed RFE/RL Journalist Khadija Ismailova

Posted December 19th, 2014 at 11:45 am (UTC+0)
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  Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty this week published a letter from their Azeri language service colleague, Khadija Ismailova, reporter is being detained in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, as detailed in an earlier RePRESSed post. With characteristic cheer, she writes: My dear friends! Here in pretrial detention, my thoughts are with you. My only regret […]

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In Azerbaijan, Khadija Ismayilova ‘Punished For Her Journalism’

Posted December 9th, 2014 at 10:10 am (UTC+0)
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  If you ask Azerbaijan prosecutors why they have jailed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reporter Khadija Ismayilova, they will tell you it is because she drove a former boyfriend to suicide. “Ismayilova was arrested for insulting [Tural] Mustafayev’s honour and dignity in the social networks and among her friends due to breaking off their […]

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USA: Art Or Assault? Supreme Court Considers Free Speech In Social Media

Posted December 2nd, 2014 at 3:38 pm (UTC+0)
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This week, U.S. Supreme Court is considering the issue of free speech in the digital age, reviewing the case of a Pennsylvania man who was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for posting graphically violent rap lyrics on his Facebook  page. Court documents show that back in May 2010, life wasn’t going very well […]

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Syria: lslamic State Group Issues Repressive New Press Guidelines

Posted October 7th, 2014 at 3:20 pm (UTC+0)
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  The Syria Deeply blog today (SD) posted new guidelines for journalists covering the Islamic State (IS) in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province, now largely under IS control. A local journalist called “Amer” is alleged to have provided SD with  the new rules, which he says came out of a meeting between ISIS media staff and […]

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#RePRESSed in Ferguson, Missouri

Posted August 19th, 2014 at 4:32 pm (UTC+0)
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Riots continue in Ferguson, Missouri–and so, too, have the arrests of journalists–at least 11 so far. Here’s a sampling of some of the criticism heaped on officials in Missouri: [View the story “#RePRESSed in Ferguson, Missouri” on Storify]

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USA: Journalists Covering #Ferguson Unrest Are Harassed, Detained

Posted August 15th, 2014 at 3:32 pm (UTC+0)
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Police firing on news crews with tear gas. Reporters handcuffed and thrown in jail. No, this isn’t Tehran or Beijing, but Ferguson, Mo., smack-dab in the center of the United States, where for days, demonstrators have taken to the streets in reaction to the police killing of unarmed teenager, Michael Brown on August 9. And […]

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About

About rePRESSEDed

VOA reporter Cecily Hilleary monitors the state of free expression and free speech around the world.

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