Category Archives: Freedom of speech

Russian-American journalist detained in Russia for violating foreign agents law

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Alsu Kurmasheva reportedly detained due to Radio Free Europe coverage of Russia’s military mobilisation for Ukraine invasion

A Russian-American journalist has been detained in Russia on charges of violating its foreign agents law, reportedly due to her coverage of Russia’s military mobilisation for its invasion of Ukraine.

Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty’s (RFE-RL) Tatar-Bashkir service, was detained on Wednesday by masked Russian law enforcement agents.

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England’s university free speech tsar says role is not to conduct ‘culture wars’

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Arif Ahmed pledges to remain politically neutral in his role and to ensure academic freedoms are maintained

England’s newly appointed university free speech tsar says his role is not to conduct “culture wars” and has pledged to be politically neutral in his efforts to combat threats to academic freedom.

Arif Ahmed, a former philosophy professor at Cambridge University, said he would measure his success or failure by surveys of students and by the number of complaints made under procedures being created by the Office for Students (OfS), England’s higher education regulator.

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UK government asks UAE for assurances over free speech at Cop28 summit

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Statement at UN human rights council voices ‘disappointment’ after host country refuses to change restrictive laws

The UK has asked the United Arab Emirates, one of its closest Gulf allies, to explain how it will guarantee free speech around the UN Cop28 climate summit in Dubai after the country refused to change its restrictive laws.

The refusal came after a four-yearly UN review of the UAE’s human rights record.

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China’s manipulation of media threatens global freedoms, says US report

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Censorship, data harvesting and purchases of foreign news outlets could lead to ‘sharp contraction’ of freedom of expression

China is manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting and covert purchases of foreign news outlets, according to a new report from the US state department, which warned the trend could lead to a “sharp contraction” of global freedom of expression.

The report released on Thursday found that Beijing had spent billions of dollars annually on information manipulation efforts, including by acquiring stakes in foreign media through “public and non-public means”, sponsoring online influencers and securing distribution agreements that promote unlabelled Chinese government content.

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Leading critic of Egyptian state jailed for six months

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Free speech advocate Hisham Kassem sentenced for defaming former minister Kamal Abu Eita

A court in Cairo has sentenced a former newspaper publisher, free speech advocate and rights activist to six months in prison, in a trial observers say constitutes an attack on a leading critic of the Egyptian state.

Hisham Kassem, the former publisher of Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, received six months in detention and a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (approximately £523) for slandering and defaming Kamal Abu Eita. Abu Eita is a former minister and current member of Egypt’s presidential pardon committee, tasked with granting clemency towards some of the tens of thousands of detainees in the Egyptian prison system.

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Iran jails two female journalists over ‘conspiracy and collusion’

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Negin Bagheri and Elnaz Mohammadi receive three-year sentences but will spend about a month in prison

Two female Iranian journalists will spend about a month in prison as part of a three-year partly suspended sentence for “conspiracy” and “collusion”, local media reported on Sunday.

Negin Bagheri and Elnaz Mohammadi will serve one-fortieth of the term, or less than a month, in prison, their lawyer, Amir Raisian, told the reformist Ham Mihan daily newspaper, where Mohammadi works.

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Russia adds Nobel prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov to list of ‘foreign agents’

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Editor of Novaya Gazeta accused of using foreign platforms to spread ‘opinions aimed at forming a negative attitude towards Russia’

Russia has added respected journalist and Nobel prize co-recipient Dmitry Muratov to its list of foreign agents, a label authorities commonly use to stifle critics.

The move targeting the editor of Russia’s top independent publication, Novaya Gazeta, is part of a wider crackdown on respected civil society institutions that has accelerated with Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.

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Russia spreading false claims about Qur’an burnings to harm Nato bid, says Sweden

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Defence agency says Moscow is using the protests in Stockholm to stir tensions between Arab countries and the west

The Swedish authorities have accused Russia of trying to influence how Qur’an burnings are viewed around the world through disinformation campaigns written in Arabic. It is believed to be part of an attempt to disrupt Sweden’s Nato membership process, which is still waiting for approval by Turkey and Hungary.

Sweden’s psychological defence agency, part of the Ministry of Defence, said that the Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik had published a series of articles in Arabic, falsely claiming that the Swedish government supported Qur’an burning. Since the end of June, the authorities have logged about a million similar posts in Arabic and other languages. The warning from the agency – a cold war-era body brought back last year to fight foreign disinformation as tensions with Russia escalated – follows another burning in a spate of such desecrations in Sweden.

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Moroccan man jailed for five years for criticising king in Facebook posts

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Court’s sentence over posts denouncing country’s ties with Israel is ‘harsh and incomprehensible’, says lawyer

A Moroccan internet user has been sentenced to five years’ jail for criticising the king on Facebook over the country’s normalisation of ties with Israel, his lawyer has said.

Said Boukioud, 48, was jailed on Monday for posts denouncing the normalisation “in a way that could be interpreted as criticism of the king”, lawyer El Hassan Essouni said on Wednesday, adding that he had appealed.

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Hong Kong judge defies government’s bid to ban pro-democracy protest song

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Judge refuses Hong Kong government’s request for injunction against Glory to Hong Kong, saying it could have chilling effect

Hong Kong’s high court has rejected a government attempt to ban a protest song, Glory to Hong Kong, saying an injunction could create a chilling effect and undermine freedom of expression.

The government had sought the injunction banning online publication or distribution of the song, arguing it insulted China’s national anthem and could give people the impression that Hong Kong was an independent country.

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Swedish PM ‘extremely worried’ as more apply to burn Qur’an

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Ulf Kristersson says ‘there is a clear risk of something serious happening’ amid growing Muslim anger at the attacks on Islam’s holy book

The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said that he is “extremely worried” about the consequences if more demonstrations go ahead in which the Qur’an is desecrated, amid growing Muslim anger at a series of attacks on Islam’s holy book.

Attacks on the Qur’an in Sweden and Denmark have offended many Muslim countries, including Turkey, whose backing Sweden needs to join Nato – a goal of Stockholm’s after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Daughter of Hong Kong exiled activist detained by national security police

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Mimi Mi Wahng Yuen, daughter of wanted pro-democracy activist Elmer Yuen, taken for questioning, according to local media

Hong Kong national security police have reportedly detained the daughter, son, and daughter-in-law of a wanted activist, in the latest move targeting the families of pro-democracy figures in exile.

Mimi Mi Wahng Yuen, the daughter of Elmer Yuen, her brother Derek, and his wife, the legislator Eunice Yung, were taken for questioning on Monday morning, according to local media. Sing Tao Daily reported Mimi had only arrived from Los Angeles on Monday morning.

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Hong Kong: fifth person arrested for allegedly supporting overseas pro-democracy activists

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Arrests comes days after Hong Kong issued warrants for eight overseas-based dissidents

Hong Kong police have arrested a fifth person accused of supporting overseas activists who allegedly endangered national security, in a further expansion of a government crackdown on pro-democracy dissidents.

Police detained a 24-year-old man at the city’s airport on Thursday, a day after four other people were arrested for allegedly using companies, social media and mobile applications to receive funds for the overseas activists.

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Hong Kong issues arrest warrants for eight overseas democracy activists

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Warrants criticised as ‘indictment’ of judiciary with three of those targeted, including Nathan Law, thought to be in UK

Hong Kong police have issued arrest warrants for eight overseas activists days after the third anniversary of the introduction of a national security law that granted authorities sweeping extraterritorial powers to prosecute acts or comments made anywhere in the world that it deems criminal.

Supt Steve Li Kwai-wah, a police officer, told a press conference on Monday that Nathan Law, Anna Kwok, Finn Lau, Dennis Kwok, Ted Hui, Kevin Yam, Mung Siu-tat and Yuan Gong-yi, high-profile pro-democracy activists, former lawmakers and legal scholars, “have encouraged sanctions … to destroy Hong Kong”.

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Iraq protesters breach Sweden’s embassy over Qur’an burning

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Followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr enter mission’s compound to denounce incident outside Stockholm mosque

Iraqi protesters have breached Sweden’s embassy in Baghdad, angered by a Qur’an burning outside a Stockholm mosque that sparked condemnation across the Muslim world.

A crowd of supporters of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr stayed inside the compound for about 15 minutes, then left as security forces deployed, an AFP photographer said.

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Jimmy Lai: editors from around the world call for release of Hong Kong media mogul

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Leading global media figures among signatories backing publisher, hit with wave of ‘lawfare’ including legislation to stop him hiring UK barrister

More than 100 journalists and editors have signed an open letter calling for the immediate release of Jimmy Lai, a British media mogul detained in Hong Kong on national security charges.

Leading global media figures including the Guardian editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, and Nobel peace prize winner Maria Ressa called for the charges against Lai and other journalists in Hong Kong to be dropped.

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Edinburgh University tries to defuse row after trans rights protests over film

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Executives holds talks with both sides after screening of gender critical documentary was cancelled

Edinburgh University hopes to defuse a crisis involving gender critical and pro-trans academics after clashes over the screening of the film Adult Human Female.

University executives are holding talks with both sides after pro-trans activists prevented the gender critical documentary from being screened on campus for the second time late last month, by blockading a theatre where it was due to be shown.

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Visitors to Commons forced to hand over leaflets on press freedom in Hong Kong

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Officials claim material on Jimmy Lai constituted political slogans but David Davis calls heavy-handed approach ‘completely daft’

Parliamentary security guards confiscated reports and leaflets about Hong Kong from attenders of an event in Westminster in case they caused political upset, the Guardian has learned, in a move condemned by a senior Conservative MP as “completely daft”.

Officers on the parliamentary estate forced people attending a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on Hong Kong last Monday to hand over copies of a report by the group about press freedom there, as well as leaflets campaigning for the release of the media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

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China should scrap ‘picking quarrels’ crime, says leading lawyer

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Suggestion to abolish catch-all offence will be among thousands considered at Chinese Communist party summit

China should abolish the catch-all crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a political delegate has proposed before next week’s major Two Sessions legislative meeting.

Zhu Zhengfu, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) advisory body, said the law risked undermining China’s legal system and was open to “selective enforcement” by authorities, according to state media.

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Nicaragua: Ortega crackdown deepens as 94 opponents stripped of citizenship

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Some of country’s most celebrated writers and journalists targeted as critics condemn ‘totalitarian drift’ under 77-year-old president

Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian regime has intensified its political crackdown, stripping 94 Nicaraguans of their citizenship, including some of the Central American country’s most celebrated writers and journalists, among them the Guardian contributor Wilfredo Miranda.

The move was announced by a Nicaraguan judge on Wednesday and sparked renewed condemnation of Ortega’s Sandinista government, which has been waging a dogged offensive against perceived rivals since June 2021.

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