PRESS RELEASE
International experts call for universal protection of freedom of expression
This week, international experts mandated by the UN, African Union, Organization of American States and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe jointly called for states to ensure that all people in society can realise their right to freedom of expression without discrimination.
The Joint Declaration on the Universality of the Right to Freedom of Expression by the four special rapporteurs, officials appointed to investigate and report on free of expression issues, has been produced with the assistance of ARTICLE 19.
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ACTION
#FreeZone9Bloggers
We joined thousands this week to demand the Ethiopian government to
#FreeZone9Bloggers. We condemn the arrest of 6 ‘Zone 9’ bloggers and 3 freelance journalists in Ethiopia, all of whom have been charged with working with foreign organisations that claim to be human rights activists and receiving finance to incite public violence through social media. The journalists and activists should be immediately and unconditionally released.
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PRESS RELEASE
Ethiopia declines to accept UN member states’ recommendations on free expression
ARTICLE 19 regrets the Ethiopian government’s rejection of United Nations member states’ genuine concerns about freedom of expression in the country. The government failed to make any concrete statements at the Universal Periodic Review aimed at improving freedom of expression at a time when it has initiated an unprecedented crackdown on journalists and human rights defenders.
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Freedom of expression critical for Africa's human rights roadmap
Angola, 8 May 2014: ARTICLE 19 urges the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to begin a series of multi-stakeholder initiatives to support and advise on the implementation of the African Union (AU)’s
Human Rights Strategy. The four-year strategy was adopted in 2012. It aims to address the slow pace at which African countries have ratified, incorporated into their domestic laws and implemented regional and international human rights instruments and decisions.
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Whatsapp in Iran?
With Whatsapp being banned in Iran this week- allegedly due to the app being bought by Mark Zuckerberg, an "American Zionist"- Article 19 explores how the decision has triggered an open dispute between Rouhani's administration and the committee responsible for internet censorship.
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Turkey’s Spy Agency provided with carte blanche for human rights abuses
On 17 April, the Turkish Parliament passed a law increasing the power and immunity of the National Intelligence Agency (MİT). The new law amends the previous law dating back to 1983, clearly aiming towards making the MİT more powerful and less accountable. In short, the law negatively impacts on freedom of press, decreases government accountability, increases the state’s capacity to monitor its citizens and makes MİT operatives immune from prosecution, regardless of any human rights abuse they might commit.
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