“Why do writers risk imprisonment or death for an idea?” In this week’s Ethiopiques journalist Mesfin Negash reflects on the risks faced by journalists, activists, and human rights defenders.
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Aung San Suu Kyi’s landslide electoral victory in April and other press freedom achievements showed the world that Burma is inching toward democratic reform. But there are just as many signs that indicate this move is more rhetoric than reality.
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For a growing number of Turkmen youth, rap music has become a way to express their daily struggles and inspire political change in one of the world’s most oppressive countries.
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In light of the new year’s Lantern Festival, we take a look back at China’s heightened crackdown on writers, journalists and activists in 2011. Included is an infographic with a timeline detailing major arrests and protests of the last year.
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On January 13, 2012 the Burmese government released scores of prisoners, including prisoners of conscience from the ’88 Generation Students. Khet Mar, the poet and former political prisoner, wrote this personal account of the amnesty and the friends who were now finally free.
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January 13 was the third wholesale amnesty and commutation of sentences under the new government yet an estimated one thousand prisoners of conscience remain in Burmese jails.
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In this interview two Iranian journalists discuss the recent issues of Iran’s diplomatic situation with the US and China, rumors surrounding the murder of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, Internet censorship, and Iran’s political prisoners.
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