While the revelations around mass surveillance by the US and some European governments were reported by Bulgaria’s media, the country’s focus in recent months has been the fallout from the country’s elections.
At the stroke of midnight on Sunday, Croatia officially became the 28th member of the European Union. Croatia will be a “serious, responsible and active member”, said President Ivo Josipovic as he ushered in “the first day of our European future”. But threats to freedom of expression, especially in the media, remain.
Belarus’s dictator Alexander Lukashenko will be able to count on some “like-minded” friends when it comes to a vote on his human rights record at the UN this week.
As protests continue in many cities across Turkey, the reactions of government, police and media have shown up only too clearly to a wider audience – domestic and international – the increasingly problematic nature of Turkish democracy, and its growing authoritarian tendencies.
A year after the mass protests marking Vladimir Putin’s controversial presidential win, Elena Vlasenko reports from Moscow on the heavy-handed repression confronting the Russian opposition.
An organisation behind a nature reserve dedicated to the protection of Russia’s cranes has been ordered to register as “a foreign agent” under the country’s July 2012 non-governmental organisation law. The case highlights how arbitrary implementation is chilling free expression in the country.
On 29 April, the Russian delegation at its Universal Period Review at the United Nations stated that it is not illegal to be a foreign agent, there are no repercussions for being considered a foreign agent – the legislation is only there to identify which NGOs receive foreign funding for political activities.
The trove of documents published last week by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an anticorruption network, offers a fascinating insight into how the rich avoid taxes.
