censorship

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Hackers backed by the Iranian government have targeted two Human Rights Watch staff members and at least 18 other high-profile activists, journalists, researchers, academics, diplomats, and politicians working on Middle East issues in an ongoing social engineering and credential phishing campaign, Human Rights Watch said today. An investigation by […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria: Families of ‘Disappeared’ Deserve Answers: UN Proposal Offers Promising Pathway (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – United Nations member countries should establish an international, independent entity to track and identify those missing and disappeared since the start of the Syria crisis in 2011, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The Syrian conflict has been marked by prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and other […]

Authoritarianism

‘A Nightmare’: Iran Intensifies Deadly Crackdown In Kurdistan Region As Protests Rage

Golnaz Esfandiari

( RFE/RL ) – Iranian authorities have intensified their deadly crackdown in the country’s western Kurdistan region, which has been the epicenter of the anti-establishment protests that have raged for months. Human rights groups say government forces have killed more than a dozen people in predominately Kurdish cities in the past 24 hours. The bloodshed […]

censorship

Musk’s Twitter won’t Label as False the Whopper that Iran has Sentenced 15,000 Protesters to Die (It is so far 2)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Maria Ramirez Uribe at Politifact explains that a wildly inaccurate Instagram post alleging that Iran’s parliament had sentenced 15,000 arrested demonstrators to death went viral. The allegation of 15,000 on death row was shared by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other prominent figures and then went viral on Twitter. […]

censorship

Ministry of Truth? Critics Warn Turkey’s new “Disinformation” Law is a Backdoor to Heavy-handed Censorship and outlawing Dissent

Global Voices

By Arzu Geybullayeva | – Turkish lawmakers approved a bill on October 13 purportedly meant to combat fake news and disinformation, but local civil society organizations describe the bill as an underhanded censorship or disinformation bill which will be used to squash dissent and criticism. Critics of the bill say the 40-article legislation passed by […]

censorship

Human Rights Groups Condemn Deadly Crackdown As Iranians Continue Protests

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda | – ( RFE/RL’s Radio Farda ) – More than three dozen human rights groups have condemned Tehran’s deadly crackdown on protests over the death of a young women while in custody for “improperly” wearing a headscarf as Iranians showed no signs of backing down in unrest that has shaken the […]

Authoritarianism

From the College Debt Crisis to Poor Health Insurance, America’s Pathologies are Rooted in the Right Wing Crackdown of WW I and After

Tomdispatch

By Adam Hochschild | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Donald Trump has had the urge to crush many things, including the last election. So I must admit I found it eerily amusing that, when the FBI entered his estate at Mar-a-Lago recently, they did so under a warrant authorized by the Espionage Act of 1917. […]

censorship

The Climate Crisis is a Human Rights crisis Worldwide

Middle East Monitor

By Amelia Smith | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – In November, heads of state, ministers, journalists and activists will gather in Egypt’s Red Sea Resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh for the UN climate change summit, COP27. There has been widespread concern about the role civil society will play. “When it’s hosted in a […]

Apartheid

Nexstar, Broadcaster of “Kung Fu,” “Nancy Drew,” Fires Journalist Katie Halper for Defending Palestinian Rights

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Journalist Katie Halper of the YouTube channel Katie Halper Show (which can be supported at Patreon) was fired on Thursday from her three-year-long morning gig on “The Rising” at The Hill TV over her remarks on Israeli Apartheid practices toward Palestinians. Both the news site The Hill and The Hill […]