WASHINGTON (AA) – UN Special Representative for Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva said Wednesday that under the Taliban, Afghanistan “remains the most repressive country in the world” when it comes to women’s rights. “The bans against women working, studying, traveling without a male companion, and even going to parks or bath...
Moscow, Russia (AFP): Russian President Vladimir Putin, who frequently decries Western libertarian and permissive values relating to gender fluidity and sexual liberty, has remarked that paedophilia has become the norm in the West. “Look at what they do to their own people: the destruction of families, of cultural and national identities...
Dhaka, Bangladesh (AFP): The only newspaper of Bangladesh’s main opposition party halted printing on Monday after a government suspension order was upheld, stoking fears about media freedom in the South Asian nation. Campaigners and foreign governments including the United States have long expressed worries about efforts by Prime Ministe...
New Delhi, India — AFP Indian tax authorities raided the BBC’s New Delhi and Mumbai offices on Tuesday, weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s actions during deadly sectarian riots in 2002. Police sealed off the New Delhi office, which occupies two floors, and half a dozen officers w...
ISLAMABAD (AA) – Pakistan’s telecommunications regulatory authority has blocked Wikipedia, an online international encyclopaedia service, for publishing and failing to remove blasphemous content, an official said on Saturday. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked Wikipedia after it failed to meet a 48-hour deadline s...
New Delhi, India (AFP): An Indian journalist held in custody for more than two years without trial walked free on Thursday after being granted bail in a money laundering case. Siddique Kappan was arrested in October 2020 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where he had travelled to report on a high-profile gang rape […]
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Israeli forces have killed 55 Palestinian journalists since 2000, according to a local journalists’ syndicate. “Fifty-five reporters have been killed either by Israeli fire or bombardment since 2000,” Naser Abu Baker, head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), told a press conference in the West Bank ...
ANKARA (AA) – Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday accused the West of adopting “double standards” on freedom of media. Speaking at the 7th Anatolian Media Awards ceremony in the capital Ankara, Erdogan said: “Those accusing Türkiye of censorship remain silent about those (Twitter) doing real cens...
Naypyidaw, Myanmar (AFP): Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to another seven years in jail as her long series of trials ended on Friday, with the Nobel laureate now facing more than three decades behind bars. A prisoner of the military since a coup last year, Suu Kyi, 77, has been convicted on […]
ISTANBUL (AA) – The European Commission has proposed to strengthen the rules that prevent and combat human trafficking. Every year over 7,000 people become victims of human trafficking in the EU, a commission statement said, adding that the figure can be higher due to many undetected cases. The majority of victims are women and girls [&h...
