Human Rights

By Mel Frykberg

GAZA CITY, Jul 3 (IPS) - The assault of IPS Gaza correspondent Mohammed Omer has left Israeli security personnel with a lot of explaining to do. And they are not doing a very good job of it.

By Ilnur Cevik [*The New Anatolian]

The Turkish constitution specifies in very clear terms that citizens will enjoy freedom of travel and communications. However, in practice this article of the constitution has been violated systematically in Turkey both by state institutions and even by private persons.

By Lin Quan Zhong

SINGAPORE, Jun 6 (Asia Media Forum) – When Lee Hsien Loong became Singapore’s prime minister after his father, Lee Kwan Yew, four years ago, he encouraged citizens to “feel free to express diverse views, pursue unconventional ideas or simply be different”. Today, these hopes for a city-state that can be more relaxed about criticism and more open to frank debate appear to have been too high.

By Shaheen Buneri

PESHAWAR, May 23 — In a fresh row of violence unidentified assailants Thursday killed Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, a senior TV journalist while he was returning to his home town after interviewing Moulvi Omar, spokesman of Pakistan Taliban Movement in Pakistan Bajaur Tribal Agency.

By Kalinga Seneviratne

DHAKA, May 14 (IPS) - The right to information (RTI), as espoused by the United Nations and international human rights organisations, does not have full endorsement from South Asian media practitioners and scholars.

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 13 (IPS) - Images of the dead keep trickling out of Burma. The most moving are those of children who died when Cyclone Nargis tore through their world in the populous Irrawaddy delta.

By Catherine Makino

TOKYO, May 12 (IPS) - The final seconds in the life of a Japanese death row inmate -- the rasping muffled last words, the trapdoor springing open, the whip of a noose and a Buddhist gong signalling the end -- has made radio history here, waking listeners up to what goes on in one of the most secretive execution systems in the world.

By Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI, May 5 (IPS) - "My captivity only brought honour upon me," is how journalist Suhail Qalandar sees his ordeal at the hands of kidnappers last year. He was talking with IPS over the phone from Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province.