Members of the International Press Institute (IPI) yesterday, meeting at their 62nd General Assembly, approved four resolutions and endorsed a call demanding that Ugandan authorities end the siege of a newspaper’s headquarters.

The members approved resolutions welcoming the Pan African Parliament’s launch of a continent-wide press freedom campaign and calling on states to implement laws and policies aimed at promoting a safe environment for journalists and fighting impunity in cases of violence against them.

They further approved a resolution calling for an end to restrictions on freedom of movement for Israeli and Palestinian journalists, and calling on Yemen to release journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaia in the absence of evidence linking him to terrorist activity. Shaia was pardoned in 2011 following his conviction by a special terrorism court, but remains imprisoned, reportedly because U.S. President Barack Obama voiced “concerns” over his release.

The members also endorsed a statement by IPI Executive Board Chair Galina Sidorova calling “on the government to immediately stop the siege of the Monitor newspaper and KFM radio”.

Ugandan authorities have placed a building housing the Monitor and KFM radio on lockdown, reportedly in response to news reports that the son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is being groomed to succeed him.

In other news, IPI members at the General Assembly re-elected Bangladeshi journalist Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul and Indian journalist Narasimhan Ravi to serve on IPI’s Executive Board. Bulbul currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Executive Board. IPI members also elected Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab and American journalist John Yearwood to serve on the board.