People take part in a rally for women’s rights and protection, after a young woman kidnapped for marriage was found dead, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 8 April 2021, VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP via Getty Images April 2021 in Europe and Central Asia: A free expression round up produced by IFEX s Regional Editor Cathal Sheerin, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.
April reminded us that “strongmen” are the wrong men if you want a free press and vibrant civil society. The month saw sweeping powers handed to the president in Kyrgyzstan, independent journalists threatened by legislation in Belarus and Kazakhstan, and civil society and the press targeted in Russia. But April also saw writer Ahmet Altan released in Turkey.
By Published April 29 at 9:25 am A man lights candles next to a memorial for Pavel Sheremet, a journalist who was killed by a car bomb in Kyiv on July 20, 2020, on the fourth anniversary of his death. Photo by
Kostyantyn Chernichkin
The Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists Platform has called on Ukraine ‘to undertake a fresh investigation’ into the 2016 murder in Kyiv of Belarusian journalist and former dissident Pavel Sheremet. The call comes four months after leaked tapes pointed to earlier plans by the Belarusian KGB to kill Sheremet and 500 days after the arrests were announced of three Ukrainians with no transparent motive during a high-profile press briefing attended by Ukraine’s president, prosecutor general, and interior minister. Although the authenticity of tapes has been confirmed, there is nothing to suggest that the Ukrainian authorities have seriou
Who Is Accountable For Kemi Badenoch’s Public Attack On Our Journalist?
It s troubling that a government minister can say what they like with impunity, writes HuffPost UK editor-in-chief Jess Brammar.
Some people call it “cancel culture”. Others call it accountability. Rightly or wrongly, your Twitter feed can get you in trouble at work, or worse. But we’ve now learned that members of our government are not held to the same standards as the rest of us.
It’s almost a month since Britain’s equalities minister posted an eight-tweet thread filled with false allegations about the conduct of HuffPost reporter Nadine White. Nadine had asked Kemi Badenoch, as one of parliament’s most senior Black MPs and the minister with the portfolio for race and inequality, why she hadn’t appeared in a video aimed at increasing uptake of the vaccine among Black people. She emailed the MP’s office, and the Treasury press team, where Badenoch also holds a ministerial role. Rather than r