Full Coverage: Freedom of expression

30.12.2005 Charkha Development Communication Network has announced that it will award the best articles that bring to light community efforts to rebuild lives following the 8th October earthquake in Kashmir. This initiative is under the Sanjoy Ghose Humanitarian Award for Story Writing 2005-06 and is only applicable to residents from the state.

29.12.2005 Two writers face trial and imprisonment in Europe for something they said or wrote. Both could be incarcerated - not for physically harming another person or for damaging property, but for uttering words that European states deem offensive. Brendan O'Neill objects.

23.12.2005 Internet governance should be free of government control and corporations should respect freedom of expression online, says a joint declaration by the UN and OAS special rapporteurs on freedom of expression and the OSCE representative on media freedom.

19.12.2005 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has condemned the police brutality and inhuman treatment of WTO protestors by the Hong Kong police. The AHRC has alleged that the police used excessive force on unarmed protestors.

08.12.2005 Media association Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about the fate of Hayatullah Khan, a reporter for the Urdu-language daily Ausaf and photographer for the European Press Photo Agency (EPA), who was kidnapped by gunmen in Mir Ali in the Tribal Zones of Pakistan, adjoining Afghanistan. His disappearance came a day after a journalist was killed in Darra Adamkhel, in another part of the tribal region.

07.12.2005 The Centre for Policy Alternatives of Sri Lanka and the International Media Support of Denmark have together published a report on the Sri Lankan media, excluding the North and East, in order to identify capacity and constraints faced by Sri Lankan mainstream and regional media, in the creation and consolidation of democratic laws and practices, and a culture of tolerance and diversity. Read the full report in pdf.

05.12.2005 As the House of Lords today begins its detailed examination of the Terrorism Bill, a leading press freedom organisation says several provisions of the legislation violate the right to freedom of expression, particularly the proposed prohibition of 'indirect incitement' and 'glorifying' terrorism.