Black day for press

Anger over the arrest of two prominent journalists is gathering steam in Turkey. Police used pepper spray to push back protesters in Ankara rallying in their support... while in Istanbul, hundreds also gathered outside the newspaper's headquarters in a show of solidarity. RT's Ilya Petrenko was at the newspaper's headquarters on what's been dubbed the black day of the press in Turkey. (But who is RT to say..)

Russian police raid Ukrainian library in Moscow

Armed and masked police raided a Moscow library specialising in Ukrainian literature before dawn on Thursday (October 29), confiscating books they said contained “anti-Russian propaganda”.

The library’s manager, a 58 year old woman, has been accused of “inciting ethnic hatred” and risks up to five years in prison. “I don’t understand who this is targeting” said Tatiana Muntyan, one of the library’s employees. “The librarians here are Russian citizens and the readers are Russian citizens. Perhaps, because of our name, some people get the impression that this is some kind of stronghold of Russophobia within Russia, or that Ukrainian nationalists created an organization here. That’s just completely wrong.”

More at euronews

Turkish police storm critical media group

Turkish riot police stormed the headquarters of critical media outlets in İstanbul shortly after dawn on Wednesday, with journalists from the paper making fruitless efforts to prevent them from entering into the building.

"Dear viewers, do not be surprised if you see police in our studio in the upcoming minutes," an anchor from Bugün TV, which is one of the seized media outlets, said as he narrated the drama unfolding outside the media company. Hundreds of people, most of them journalists from media outlets affiliated with Koza İpek Holding, thronged outside the headquarters of the company to protest the seizure of the media companies by the Turkish government.

Mahmut Tanal, a lawmaker from the Republican People's Party (CHP), tried to negotiate with police chiefs, but the riot police proceeded to enter the building, where four media outlets are operating. Police routinely used pepper spray and frequent brawls erupted as they occupied the building.

A reporter from the newspaper tweeted his bloody hands to show how he was injured while resisting police who tried to occupy his office.

More at Today's Zaman - Bugün TV

Over 20 Chinese Human Rights Lawyers & Staff Arrested, Kidnapped or Missing

The mass arrests started since lawyer Wang Yu, her husband Bao Longjun and their young son were kidnapped on July 9 (Wang Yu’s arrest, Radio Free Asia). Their son has been released, according to information on WeChat. Her colleague at Fengrui Law Firm,  Beijing lawyer Zhou Shifeng was abducted from his hotel room on July 9, after he picked up Zhang Miao, Chinese news assistant to German magazine Die Zeit since last October for her support to Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution.

About a dozen lawyers throughout China were summoned to police station on late July 10 for interrogation, including Lu Fangzhi, Wen Donghai, Yang Jinzhu of Hunan province, Zeng Weixu of Shangdong, Xue Rongmin of Shanghai, Fu Jianbo of Chongqing, Wang Cheng of Zhejiang province, Ji Laisong of Henan province. Lawyers Zou Lihui of Fujiang province, Jiang Yongji of Gansu province have been allowed to returned home after police interrogations. Activist Ou Biaofeng @oubiaofeng Tweeted around 2:50am quoting Yang Jinzhu who’s under interrogation at a police station in Hunan province as saying the Domestic Security officers told him lawyer Zhou Shifeng has committed “severe criminal offence”, according to a decree issued by Beijing.

Human RIghts Lawyer Wang Yu

Renowned legal scholar and lawyer Zhang Xuezhong is suspected to have been detained. The police broke into Zhang’s home, and homes of lawyer Li Dawei in Gansu province, lawyer Guo Xiongwei in Hunan province. Police ransacked a dozen lawyers’ homes in Chongqing city, Yunnan, Hunan, Shangdong, Zhejiang, Henan provinces. According to New York-based activist Wen Yunchaos Tweet @wenyunchao, Chongqing human rights lawyer You Feizhu wrote: “There’re guests outside the door…I firmly believe I’m innocent. You need to firmly believe that, too! I love this country and the people on this land deeply. What I’ve been doing, is just trying to make this country and lives of ordinary people a bit better.”

The mass arrests and kidnapping by Chinese police followed last Wednesday’s passing of National Security Law which lawyers and scholars say gives Beijing more legitimacy to create a garrison state. “This law will legitimize the abuse of power by state and public security bureaus,” said prominent human rights lawyer Teng Biao, who was detained before.

revolution-news.com

How and why Fake News Stories are created and pushed

Naomi R. Wolf is an American author and former political consultant for the Clinton/Gore administration. This was filmed at the 2014 Free State Project's Liberty Forum in New Hampshire.

Peter Greste 'won't give up' until colleagues are free

The family of Peter Greste, who has been released by Egyptian authorities after 400 days in prison, have said the award-winning Al Jazeera journalist's relief at being free is marred by the continued imprisonment of his colleagues. Baher Mohamed, a producer, and the channel's Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy, who were working on the same stories as Peter, are still in jail and on Monday started their 401st day behind bars.

Greste's brother Andrew said on Monday that Greste was still worried about the fate of his colleagues. "Straight up he's not going to forget his two other colleagues. There's no doubt that his excitement is tempered and and restrained and will be restrained until those guys are free," Andrew said at a news conference in Brisbane. "He won't give up until Baher and Mohamed are out of there," he added: "We are thinking of Baher, Mohamed and their families."

Al Jazeera English

EU response to free speech killings? More internet censorship

In the wake of this week’s terrorist attacks in Paris, which began with the killing of 12 people at the offices of satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, the interior ministers of 12 EU countries have called for a limited increase in internet censorship.

The interior ministers of France, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the U.K. said in a statement (PDF) that, while the internet must remain “in scrupulous observance of fundamental freedoms, a forum for free expression, in full respect of the law,” ISPs need to help “create the conditions of a swift reporting of material that aims to incite hatred and terror and the condition of its removing, where appropriate/possible.”

This sounds similar to recent agreements in the U.K. whereby ISPs use filters to stop citizens seeing “extremist” online content, though it’s hard to tell without more details. There seems to be no coordinated push for more internet surveillance just yet, although there is a drive for better intelligence sharing between EU countries.

It seems, to say the least, an awkward reaction to what was in part a free-speech-related attack — the left-wing Charlie Hebdo has itself frequently been accused of hate speech for its portrayal of Muslims and others. On that front, a German newspaper that reprinted blasphemous Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Mohammed in the wake of the attack was firebombed in the early hours of Sunday morning, with no injuries. Others that did the same remain under police guard.

Gigaom.com - Tech News and Analysis

Gun attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo kills 13

Gunmen have attacked the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 13 people and injuring seven in an apparent Islamist attack. At least two masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car.

The gunmen shouted "we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad", witnesses say. President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity". A major police operation is under way in the Paris area to catch the killers.

BBC News – Aljazeera English – Sky 

Witnesses said the gunmen shouted "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for God is great) during the deadly rampage. It was by far the bloodiest attack on Charlie Hebdo, but not the first.

The left-leaning magazine is known for its provocative and acerbic commentary on world affairs, routinely taking on the high and mighty, be they celebrities, presidents or popes. But its jabs at Islamic extremists have stirred the most controversy.

The satirical weekly has been repeatedly threatened for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in the name of free speech and France’s cherished secular laws.

More at France 24

#JeSuisCharlie - Twitter users have begun to replace their profile avatars with a white-on-black image of the phrase - which translates as "we are all Charlie" in English - in sympathy with those killed. (Sky)

How Dare We Expect Freedom Of Speech!

Thai Authorities To Promote 'Martial Law Tourism'

The Tourism Authority of Thailand says its preparing to add one more tourist attraction to the Kingdom's long list of temples, beaches, and mountains: life under martial law.   "The TAT is preparing a campaign called '24 Hours Enjoy Thailand' to attract foreign tourists to visit Thailand under martial law," TAT Governor Thawatchai Arunyik told Thai Rath newspaper on Friday.

Thawatchai said that martial law is beneficial to tourism, because it ensures that foreign tourists can be safe 24 hours a day. "We want the tourists to be confident that they can travel in Thailand both day and night with safety at all times," Thawatchai said, adding that he hopes to promote this concept by creating a "buzz" on social media.

The military imposed martial law over the entire nation on 20 May and seized power two days later. Human rights activists have decried the sweeping power of the 100-year-old law, which includes the authority to detain individuals and search properties without warrants, ban public protests, and try dissenters in military court. 

Khaosod

Wikipedia edits from government computers

Channel 4 News reveals controversial edits to the Wikipedia pages for Jean Charles de Menezes, Lee Rigby and Damilola Taylor have been made from government computers.

No foul play Brazil!

The lead up to the World Cup has prompted large scale demonstrations and public protests to which the police have responded with use of force, and in some cases "less lethal" weapons such as tear gas and rubber bullets.
Protests are likely to continue in coming weeks and the Brazilian Congress is considering new laws that could be used to crack down on protesters. Additionally, inadequate regulations and training for policing demonstrations pose a risk of more injuries to protesters due to excessive use of force by police.
Everyone has the right to peaceful protest -- to exercise their human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly - and the Brazilian Government has a duty to ensure that they can. aiyellowcard.org

Egyptian judge wishes al-Jazeera trio a happy Press Freedom Day then refuses bail

The judge trying three al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt wished them a happy World Press Freedom Day before refusing them bail and adjourning their case until 15 May.

In a brief session on Saturday, one of the trio, al-Jazeera English's Cairo bureau chief, Mohamed Fahmy, was allowed to leave the defendants' cage to explain to the judge the nature of journalism. The judge, Mohamed Nagy, then adjourned proceedings because Fahmy's lawyer had failed to turn up due to a private emergency.

Fahmy, the Australian ex-BBC journalist Peter Greste and a local producer, Baher Mohamed, have been in jail since late December, and stand accused of creating false news, smearing Egypt's reputation, and aiding terrorists. They are charged alongside five students with connections to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, and prosecutors have tried to show that al-Jazeera is part of a pro-Brotherhood conspiracy.

More at The Guardian

Only 1 in 7 people live in a country with a 'free' press

Global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade, according to the latest edition of Freedom House's press freedom survey. The decline was driven in part by major regression in several Middle Eastern states, including Egypt, Libya, and Jordan; marked setbacks in Turkey, Ukraine, and a number of countries in East Africa; and deterioration in the relatively open media environment of the United States.

Freedom of the Press 2014 found that despite positive developments in a number of countries, most notably in sub-Saharan Africa, the dominant trends were reflected in setbacks in every other region.

Freedom of the Press 2014 | Freedom House