Over the course of just one month in Belarus, the popular independent website Charter ’97 was blocked, a Belsat journalist was beaten up by police and a reporter had his home searched after an article on police brutality. On February 18, Andrus Kozel was livestreaming content from a polling station for Belsat, an independent, Polish-funded […]

Last Sunday, Turkish voters narrowly approved constitutional changes that observers fear will lead to authoritarian rule under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. While international election observers have criticised technical aspects of the vote, Erdoğan’s crackdown on the press – including the jailing of at least 150 journalists – and nurturing of a state propaganda machine had […]

The International Press Institute (IPI) today joined international condemnation of Belarusian police’s Friday morning raid on independent broadcaster Belsat TV in Minsk that followed the station’s coverage of nationwide protests against a tax on the unemployed. Authorities reportedly detained one employee, a videographer, and confiscated camera and audio equipment in the raid, which Belsat’s head […]

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today released a comparative study “Defamation and Insult Laws in the OSCE Region” finding that criminal law remains an instrument to excessively limit media freedom. Commissioned by the representative and conducted by International Press Institute (IPI) Director of Press […]