“Only global solidarity among democracy’s defenders can successfully counter the combined aggression of its adversaries.”
Freedom House, Freedom Report 2022
Features
THE BIG PICTURE:
Democracies Waning: Where We Are
READ FULL REPORT Freedom House was established in 1941 by Democrat Eleanor Roosevelt, Republican Presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, to help evolve a world where democracy and rights were the norm, not the exception. A tall order. And they’re still at it. Every year the organization issues a report on how we’re doing. They have recently issued their 50th Anniversary issue, Freedom in the...
RSF: Press Freedom Index
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) was founded in 1985. by four journalists in Montpellier, France. Today, with 7 offices around the world, and 134 correspondents, RSF is at the forefront of the defence and promotion of freedom of information. Each year, RSF releases the World Press Freedom Index, which assesses the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories. The researchers define press...
Religious Freedom Around the World
In 1998, during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, the U.S. Congress passed the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which declared it to be U.S. policy to (1) condemn violations of religious freedom, and to promote, and to assist other governments in the promotion of, the fundamental right to freedom of religion; and (2) seek to channel U.S. security and development assistance to...
FEATURES
Iranian women and Selena Gomez express support for girls arrested in viral dancing video
Belarus jails senior staff at independent news site in crackdown on Lukashenko critics
NPR: Women across Iran are refusing to wear headscarves, in open defiance of the regime
Ales Bialiatski sentenced to 10 years in jail
Nobel laureate calls for tribunal to try Putin
Dmitry Muratov on Corruption and Ukraine
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATES URGE PRESIDENT MARCOS TO ENSURE JUSTICE FOR MARIA RESSA
Philippine journalist and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa and her online news site, Rappler, have been subjected to a multi-pronged and sustained attack from multiple government agencies, initiated under the administration of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. These attacks, including multiple false criminal charges, have threatened to imprison Maria, with a combined maximum sentence of 100 years, and shut down her online news site, Rappler.
On Wednesday, January 18, 2023, the Philippine Court of Tax Appeals acquitted Ressa and Rappler of four of the charges against her, of tax evasion and failure to provide full information to the tax authorities in corporate filings. The charges were based on filings by the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) with the Department of Justice in 2018 that claimed Rappler was not a news site at all but was a “seller if securities” for having brought private investment into the company.
This is only the beginning. The charges being ruled on this week will be followed by more trials on other spurious charges, including being a “foreign agent,” based on Rappler having received investment from private individuals who are not citizens of the Philippines).
In June, 2020, Ressa former and Rappler researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr. were convicted of cyber libel. These criminal charges resulted from a Rappler article suggesting that a Philippine businessman had inappropriate financial ties to a Supreme Court Judge. Ressa was sentenced to more than six years in prison. She is currently out on bail while waiting for the case to come before the Supreme Court. It should be noted that the article was published before the law criminalizing cyber law was written into law. The law was applied “retroactively.”
Twelve Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Ressa’s 2021 co-recipient Dmitri Muratov, and the three 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates (with political prisoner Ales Bialiatski represented by his wife, Natalia Pichuk) spoke out in an open letter to President Marcos, urging the President to bring these unjust attacks to an end and restore freedom of the press, a bedrock of democracy, in the Philippines.
2021 Co-Recipient of Nobel Peace Prize Dmitry Muratov Delivers a Message to President Marcos on Maria Ressa
Russian Journalist Dmitry Muratov sends a message to President Marcos about the political persecution of Philippine journalist and founder of the online news site Rappler, Maria Ressa. Muratov was co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the last remaining independent newspaper in Russia, now shuttered. Muratov and Ressa were co-recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.
News:
Myanmar: Campaign of Terror
A ‘campaign of terror’ is how human rights groups are describing what’s happening in central Myanmar. In the Buddhist heartland, there are recurring reports of villages torched, people killed, homes destroyed and food sources charred. A scene that has played out since...
Indian scholars, activists criticize school hijab ban ruling
NEW DELHI (AP) — A recent court ruling upholding a ban on Muslim students wearing head coverings in schools has sparked criticism from constitutional scholars and rights activists who say that judicial overreach threatens religious freedoms in officially...
Iranian women and Selena Gomez express support for girls arrested in viral dancing video
Five Iranian girls who were arrested for a video of them dancing have publicly apologised, as Iranian women have shared support for the group by posting their own dancing videos. The five teenagers shared a TikTok on 8 March of them dancing to the Selena Gomez and...
Belarus jails senior staff at independent news site in crackdown on Lukashenko critics
Belarus has handed long jail terms to senior staff at the country’s largest independent news site, which was forced to close after historic demonstrations against strongman Alexander Lukashenko over two years ago. The verdicts are the latest in a crackdown on...
NPR: Women across Iran are refusing to wear headscarves, in open defiance of the regime
TEHRAN, Iran – You see it as soon as you land at the airport: posters telling women to keep their headscarves on. They're everywhere in Iran; in malls, restaurants, billboards above main highways, and even rest stops in between cities. The hijab remains the official...
Ales Bialiatski sentenced to 10 years in jail
A court in Belarus has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison. He was convicted of smuggling and financing "actions grossly violating public order", the Viasna human rights group said. Supporters of Mr Bialiatski, 60, say the...
Nobel laureate calls for tribunal to try Putin
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk has called for the swift creation of a special tribunal to try Vladimir Putin and his associates for the crime of aggression, arguing that it could have “a cooling effect” on atrocities committed by the Kremlin’s...
Dmitry Muratov on Corruption and Ukraine
On the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that has displaced millions of Ukrainians and claimed the lives of thousands of civilians, the Utah Valley University (UVU) Center for Constitutional Studies (CCS) hosted Russian journalist and...
Chevron agrees to sell Myanmar assets and will exit country
HOUSTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - U.S. oil major Chevron Corp (CVX.N) on Friday said it had agreed to sell its assets in Myanmar to Canadian company MTI, in a deal that allows it to leave the Asian country. The agreement comes one year after Chevron and other oil companies...
Will Russian aid for Myanmar give Moscow an Asian foothold?
As Myanmar this month marks two years since the country's democratically elected government was overthrown in a military coup, Russia remains a key supporter of Myanmar's ruling junta, both diplomatically and materially. Myanmar did not join in the...
Iranian couple filmed dancing in Tehran are jailed for 10 years
Couple convicted of ‘encouraging corruption and public prostitution’ after video of dance at landmark tower went viral An Iranian court has handed jail sentences of more than 10 years each to a young couple who danced in front of one of Tehran’s main landmarks in a...
Freedom in the World 2022
Freedom House was established in 1941 by Democrat Eleanor Roosevelt, Republican Presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, to help evolve a world where democracy and rights were the norm, not the exception. A tall order. And they’re still at it.
Every year the organization issues a report on how we’re doing. Their 2022 report was a warning. A total of 60 countries experienced a decline in freedom in the last year. Only 25 improved.