censorship

By Maira Sutton | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – In a In a joint letter to Congress released this week, more than 250 technology companies and user rights organizations say that the extreme level of secrecy surrounding trade negotiations have led to provisions in agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that threaten digital innovation, free […]

Apartheid

Digital Militarism: Israel’s Occupation in the Social Media Age

contributors

by JULIE POUCHER HARBIN, EDITOR, ISLAMiCommentary — Q & A with REBECCA STEIN: Digital Militarism: Israel’s Occupation in the Social Media Age (Stanford University Press, April 2015), by scholars Adi Kunstman and Rebecca Stein, has been called “a pioneering book, showing how information and communication technologies have turned into wartime arsenals, and the Internet and […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syrian Opposition, Caught between Assad & Extremists, Despair at World’s Neglect

contributors

By Haroro J. Ingram with L. T. Anthony | (The Conversation) | – Syrian civilians are trapped in the middle of a holocaust: prizes in a ruthless contest for popular support and cannon fodder mercilessly slaughtered by forces with little regard for human life. Despite many groups being implicated in actions targeting civilian populations, the […]

censorship

Iranian Police Arrest Leading Human Rights Activist Again

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari | (RFE/RL) | – Narges Mohammadi, the deputy head of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) co-founded by Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, was arrested on May 5 at her home in Tehran, according to her husband. Speaking to RFE/RL by telephone from Paris, Taghi Mohammadi said the officers […]

censorship

Don’t Be Fooled by Saudi’s Reshuffle

contributors

By Adam Coogle | (Human Rights Watch) | – King Salman’s promotion of his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef to the position of crown prince and heir apparent marks a change of direction for Saudi Arabia, raising the possibility that power in the kingdom may be put directly into the hands of the House of Saud’s […]

censorship

Saudi Arabia, Iran, Azerbaijan among Top 10 Worst Censors: Media Watchdog

contributors

By Valentina Ieri | – UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – While technology has given millions greater freedom to express themselves, in the world's 10 most censored countries, this basic right exists only on paper, if at all. According to a report by thereport by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which will be officially […]

censorship

Israeli Forces Target Journalists in West Bank

contributors

By Mel Frykberg | – KAFR QADDOUM, West Bank (IPS) – It is becoming increasingly risky to cover clashes and protests between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters in the West Bank as the number of journalists injured, in what appears to be deliberate targeting by Israeli security forces, continues to rise. Israeli commander who […]

Apartheid

Palestine: 2014 sees Record number of Journalists Targeted

contributors

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) said Sunday that 2014 saw 465 violations of media freedoms in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. MADA chairman Dr. Ghazi Hanania told reporters that 2014 was “the worst, the deadliest, and the hardest year ever for journalists and media […]

censorship

Israel Top Court denies justice to Family of Slain Activist Rachel Corrie

contributors

By Sarah Lazare | (Commondreams.org) The family of Rachel Corrie—the 23-year-old U.S. activist crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while nonviolently protesting a home demolition in Palestine 12 years ago—was denied justice by Israel’s top court on Thursday. The rejection is the latest stage in the family’s decade-long legal battle to hold Israel […]