Global Free Speech Update

Global Free Speech Update

Europe:  the European Parliament is working to make it easier for broadcasters to deliver programming across the EU’s 27 member countries.  Under consideration is a single uniform licensing standard that would take the place of copyright laws that differ from nation to nation, and which make it exceedingly costly and time consuming to broadcast across borders.

Uzbekistan:  the OSCE Media Representative responded to the arrest of two more journalists by calling for an end to the "unrelenting judicial harassment" of reporters and media broadcasters. Several journalists are awaiting trial on multiple criminal charges, including slander, insult, and distributing materials harmful to public security.  Uzbekistan ranked 160 out of 175 on last year's World Press Freedom Index.

Turkey:  the European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear the case of Orhan Miroglu, a political candidate who was arrested in 2007 for dotting his election speech with Kurdish phrases.  That's actually a crime in Turkey, where only the national language is allowed to be spoken at a campaign event, a government function, or a state institution.  In the country’s mainly Kurdish southeastern region, Kurdish families and political activists have staged a one week boycott of public schools as a form of protesting the law that prevents teachers from speaking Kurdish to Kurdish speaking children.  Five school children and a pro-Kurdish party leader were arrested when authorities found them handing out leaflets promoting the boycott.

Mexico:  President Calderon promised to push for federal legislation to protect journalists, including a law that would make attacks on journalists a federal crime.  The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that more than  30 journalists have been killed in the last four years alone.  Most of those crimes remain unsolved on account of government corruption at the state and local level.

-Kathleen Bergin