The G8 leaders meeting in Northern Ireland cannot hope to achieve their declared goals on transparency, corruption and human rights without a clear commitment to respecting freedom of expression at home.

A village chief in Cebu province, Philippines sued a radio blocktimer for libel two months after the latter accused her of using the village hall as her home.

A Saudi court convicted two Saudi women's rights activists on June 15, 2013, for trying to help a woman flee the country and sentenced them each to 10 months in prison and a two-year travel ban.

Once labelled the “enemy of the internet” — Tunisia has made tremendous strides in the past two years towards opening up the internet. Still, the country continues to face challenges in its road to expanding freedom online.

Freelance journalist, Paul Pindani, is reportedly battling for life after he was abducted from his home and severely assaulted in Mashonaland West’s provincial capital of Chinhoyi on Friday, 14 June 2013.

As part of IFEX's lobbying during the General Meeting in Cambodia, a factsheet was prepared as background to the Call to Action for Yorm Bopha, a Cambodian land rights activist, currently serving a two-year prison sentence.

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Turkish state media regulator to reverse its decision to penalize four TV stations in connection with their coverage of the demonstrations that have occurred nationwide over the past two weeks.

Egyptian human rights organisations have joined together to condemn the sentencing of Egyptian lawyer and activist Karem Saber to five years in prison for allegedly insulting religion.

Armed conflicts, violent activities of fundamentalist groups and drug cartels and general intolerance for free expression among a number of governments have been highlighted as major threats to the advancement of press freedom in the West African region.

Along the approval process, the Communications bill had been observed by international agencies and organizations such as the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Human Rights Watch, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, among others, because it did not comply with international standards on freedom of expression.

Authorities in Laos have failed to seriously investigate or credibly explain the enforced disappearance six months ago of a leading social activist, Sombath Somphone.

The two-year prison sentence for a Tunisian rapper 13 June 2013, for “insulting the police” in a song violates freedom of speech, Human Rights Watch said today. The criminal court sentence is another manifestation of the continuing intolerance for those who criticize government institutions in Tunisia.

Vietnamese police in Hanoi arrested a blogger on accusations of anti-state activity; Pham Viet Dao reportedly wrote blogs that were critical of government officials and policies.

Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, special executive assistant to President Ernest Koroma, recently called on local journalists in Sierra Leone to "prepare for a massive and long overdue sanitisation" of the country’s media landscape.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights is outraged by the 14 June 2013 decision by the Court of Appeal in Phnom Penh, to uphold the bogus conviction of housing rights activist, Yorm Bopha.

In a letter being read from during the IFEX general meeting, detained Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab thanked IFEX members for their support and encouraged them to continue fighting for free expression.

The return of exiled Burmese media groups is one of the clearest signs of the country’s improved reporting environment, but the outlets may struggle to compete as Western donors reduce funding. Furthermore, journalists are worried about losing the editorial independence they enjoyed in exile.

The presidency claims that the new draft law has no criminal penalties, yet this is misleading. The draft clearly states that the law's penalties would not supersede the harsher penalties inthe penal code.

The regional court of the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland has banned all Somali printing agencies and distributors from printing and circulating the independent daily Hubaal, at the request of the acting attorney general.

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by journalist José Roberto Ornelas de Lemos’ murder in Rio de Janeiro state on 11 June 2013. The editor of the Hora H newspaper, he was shot 44 times from a car while visiting a bakery.