Uwazi

The Lenin district court in Bishkek has started a hearing into a request from Kyrgyzstan's Culture Information, Sports, and Youth Policies Ministry to halt the operations of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk and officially registered as Azattyk Media in the Central Asian nation.

The judge opened the hearing on March 17 by allowing the first 20 minutes of the session to be recorded.

The ministry's official request to halt Radio Azattyk's operations as a media outlet was filed with the court in late January.

According to the ministry, the request was made due to Radio Azattyk's refusal to remove from the Internet a video about clashes last year along a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.

Kyrgyz authorities blocked Radio Azattyk’s websites in Kyrgyz and Russian in late October when the video report in question -- which was produced by Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America -- was left on the sites.

Officials of the Central Asian nation have claimed that the authors of the video "predominantly" took the position of the Tajik side.

RFE/RL President and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Fly has said the broadcaster "takes our commitment to balanced reporting seriously" and that after a review of the content in question, "no violation of our standards" was found.

The authorities' decision was based on the Law on Protection from False Information, legislation that drew widespread criticism when it was adopted in August 2021.

Radio Azattyk's bank account in Bishkek was frozen at the time, and in November, Kyrgyz authorities suspended the accreditations of 11 RFE/RL correspondents at the country's parliament.

The Kyrgyz government's decision has been criticized by domestic and international human rights watchdogs, Kyrgyz politicians, celebrities, intellectuals, journalists, lawmakers, and rights activists, who have called for the government to repeal it.

RFE/RL has appealed against the move to block the sites with Bishkek's Birinchi Mai district court.

Earlier this month, Bishkek's Administrative Court rejected an appeal launched by RFE/RL that sought to have the October move to block the sites overturned.

The court did not explain the reasoning behind its ruling.

Maldives authorities should investigate the police assault of journalist Hussain Juman, refrain from filing any charges against him in retaliation for his work, and ensure members of the press can cover protests freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On the evening of Thursday, March 16, Maldives police assaulted and arrested Juman, a reporter for the privately owned news website Avas, while he covered a rally by supporters of the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives in the capital city of Malé, according to a tweet by the Maldives Journalists Association and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Authorities released him without charge on Friday afternoon, following an order by the Maldives Criminal Court. Juman told CPJ that he did not know if police intended to file charges against him in the future.

“Maldives authorities must swiftly investigate the police assault of journalist Hussain Juman and hold the officers responsible to account,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “In the run-up to September’s presidential election, Maldives authorities must ensure the media can cover political rallies without fear of being targeted or assaulted. Journalists are doing their jobs to keep voters informed.”

Protesters had gathered calling for the release of PPM leader Abdulla Yameen, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison on corruption and money laundering charges in December.

Juman was filming the rally when police shoved him to the ground and threw his phone away, according to a video of the incident posted to Twitter and the journalist, who said he sustained injuries to his chest, shoulder, and back.

Juman was held in an overcrowded cell with around 12 others in the Malé custodial detention center before being presented in the Maldives Criminal Court on Friday afternoon, he said.

At that hearing, state lawyers asked the court to extend Juman’s detention for 15 days pending an investigation into allegations that he disturbed police functions and physically assaulted officers at the rally, Juman told CPJ.

After reviewing the video of officers assaulting Juman, the court denied the state lawyers’ request due to insufficient evidence and ordered his immediate release, he said.

Maldives Police Commissioner Mohamed Hameed told CPJ by phone that police will conduct an internal inquiry into the assault and arrest of Juman, and will determine whether he will be charged.

Police assaulted two journalists last month while they covered political protests near the parliament building. The parliament is currently considering an amendment that would restrict journalists’ ability to cover elections.

The Information Ministry revoked the licenses of three media outlets on Thursday after they published reports exposing a senior government official’s role in land fraud.

The Ministry stated that online Khmer language media outlets Federation of Cambodia-ASEAN Journalists, Raksmey Kampong Cham and Dumnong Knong Srok had “committed serious violations of journalistic ethics” and “not followed the instruction of the ministry.”

Chea Lyheang, president and publisher of the Federation of Cambodia-ASEAN Journalists, expressed disappointment that the Ministry revoked his outlet’s license without clear explanation.

“We regret this, please show the exact issue and what mistake we have made,” Lyheang told CamboJA.

Lyheang said the Information Ministry had called him for a meeting in February and requested that he remove articles alleging that government officials had forged documents in a land dispute and, in another case, involved in the extortion of poor families.

One report, published in all three outlets, revealed that senior ruling CPP National Assembly member Sar Chamrong, former deputy governor of Banteay Meanchey, allegedly forged documents to gain more than 60 hectares of land in Banteay Meanchey.

“After seeing forged documents and thumb prints, I have published this information and Sar Chamrong has complained to the Information Ministry,” Lyheang said.

Chamrong heads the National Assembly’s Commission on Human Rights, Complaints and Investigations. In February 2020, Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith led a delegation to pay respects at the funeral of Chamrong’s mother.

Chamrong could not be reached for comment by CamboJA.

The Information Ministry claimed the articles damaged the honor of the officials named in the report, according to Lyheang.

“I replied that I cannot remove the information because it is real information, especially a lie to Prime Minister Hun Sen,” Lyheang said.

Another article published in the three outlets revealed that a Takeo provincial deputy prosecutor had seized property from three families who bought it from Ratanakiri province and demanded they pay him money to get it back.

Chea Saren, publisher of Dumnong Knong Srok, published the same reports into land disputes and land fraud this year, including in a video segment receiving more than 169,000 views on Facebook. He said the Information Ministry requested he remove the articles, which he refused to do.

“They [Information Ministry] had requested to remove those two articles but I didn’t follow [their request] because we have enough documents and are interviewing villagers,” he said. “We have published the real information of villagers, which might have impacted other people’s interests.”

Information Ministry spokesperson Meas Sophorn denied the Ministry had asked the media outlets to remove articles.

“It isn’t true,” Sophorn said. “The decision to revoke licenses came because those media outlets have broadcasted disinformation with no verification of sources from relevant parties related to information they have published, and they didn’t make a correction to disinformation they had published.”

The spokesperson claimed that the land dispute in Banteay Meanchey province was already resolved and so there was no need to report further on it. He added the outlets had “violated journalistic professional ethics…stated in the Press Law.”

The Press Law states that anybody who believes they have been subject to a false report damaging them may file a civil suit to resolve the matter in court.

“For me, I want to see a thorough investigation of the cases before closing [the publications],” said Nop Vy, executive director of Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA).

Press freedom in Cambodia has worsened as a result of the closure of these outlets, he said.

“From my perspective, if [the closure of media outlets] continues, it will not be a good image for our society, it could have a lot of impacts, especially impacting the push for transparency and [ability] to root out corruption in our society,” Vy said.

The government has previously censored the media for reporting information that it deems to damage the reputation of officials.

In February, the government shut down independent media VOD and blocked access to its website for a report alleging the Prime Minister’s son Hun Manet had signed a document in place of his father to provide aid to Turkey.

“It is a lesson learned for other media institutions,” Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said on his Facebook page after the announcement of VOD’s closure. “The media institutions that do not agree to publish clarifications, [they] will face the revocation of their licenses.”

The revocation of VOD’s license was condemned by a range of foreign embassies, the United Nations and human rights groups. But Prime Minister Hun Sen brushed off those concerns and said VOD’s shut down strengthened the Kingdom’s journalism by punishing what he claimed to be unprofessional reporting.

Following the loss of its license, outlet Dumnong Knong Srok posted a goodbye to followers on its Facebook page.

“Farewell to the professional journalists all over the Kingdom of Cambodia who are in love with the field of journalism,” Dumnong Knong Srok said in a Friday post. “Wish them good health and continue to spread true information to the society for the motherland.”

Mr Le Than, of Le Hieu Dang Club - members includes pro-democracy former high-ranked officials and former Party members - said his Club members planned to go to Bach Dang Wharf (HCMC) to light joss sticks, but only few whom the police didn't know managed to get there, other members were blocked from leaving their house as the local police guarded them since the early morning [of 13 Mar].

Dissident intellectual Dr Mac Van Trang and his wife - well known actress Kim Chi - were under guard at their home [in HCMC].

Mrs Duong Thi Tan, an activist from Saigon, said her home was under police guard for several days but she didn't know what the police's intention was.

In Hanoi, outspoken former teacher Mrs Tran Thi Thao told RFA, a local policeman and several plain clothes police stood guard near the bottom of the staircase of her apartment block and prevented her from going out.

An activist who preferred to remain anonymous said, at King Ly Thai To statue in Hanoi central, a number of police vehicles, district police, police and civilian guards were present but not as large in number as in previous years.

Poet Hoang Hung - of Independent Writers' League - opined that the regime determines to ban all independent activities showing signs that they are in any way organised, whether it's picking up rubbish or grow trees or reacting to China.

Mrs Tran Thi Thao opined that [this year], by allowing the state media to write about Gac Ma and name China as the culprit in the incident, the regime led by Party Chief Trong aims to mollify the people and deceive the West - pretending there is a shift in Vietnam's relations with China; however by suppressing dissidents and activists, the regime wants to prove to President Xi Jinping that those seen as anti-China are still subject to Vietnam's forceful treatment.

A 38-year-old indigenous Karen man from Mae Hong Son has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for royal defamation and sedition over 4 Facebook posts and denied bail.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported on Monday (13 March) that the Chiang Mai Provincial Court has found Phonchai Wimonsuphawong, 38, guilty of royal defamation, sedition, and violation of the Computer Crimes Act for 4 Facebook posts made between 18 October and 19 November 2020.

The complaint against him was filed by Jessada Thunkeaw, a former protest guard for the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), who accused Phonchai of 4 Facebook posts about the King’s involvement in politics and inviting people to join protests. However, Phonchai said that he did not make the posts, as his Facebook account was stolen at the time.

Phonchai was arrested on 10 March 2021 at his residence in Nonthaburi on a warrant issued by the Chiang Mai Provincial Court. He was then denied bail and held in pre-trial detention at Chiang Mai Remand Prison for 44 days before being released on 22 April 2021.

On Monday (13 March), the Chiang Mai Provincial Court found him guilty on all 4 counts of royal defamation, sedition, and violation of the Computer Crimes Act on the grounds that the posts refer to King Vajiralongkorn using inappropriate language and contain false information, and also invited people to join illegal gatherings. He was sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison.

The court also ruled that, although Phonchai said his account was stolen, he did not present evidence that this was true, and he would have pressed charges or tried to find the culprit if his account was stolen. Since he said the account was his, and there is a video clip of Phonchai introducing himself on the account, the Court believes that he made the posts.

Following his sentencing, Phonchai’s lawyer filed a bail request, but the Chiang Mai District Court forwarded the request to the Appeal Court for consideration, and he was taken to Chiang Mai Remand Prison.

On Tuesday (14 March), the Appeal Court denied Phonchai bail on the grounds that he committed a serious offense, and since he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, he is likely to flee if released.

Phonchai was previously granted bail by the Yala Provincial Court, after he was found guilty of royal defamation and sentenced to 3 years in prison, reduced to 2 because he gave useful testimony. The Court also only found him guilty of a Facebook video he posted of himself talking about the pro-democracy protests in October 2020, and not for 2 other Facebook posts he said were made after his account was stolen, because evidence presented by the prosecution did not contain the posts’ URLs, and the inquiry officer testified that they were not sure if the images of the posts are accurate.

According to TLHR, he is also facing 5 other charges from joining protests in Bangkok. He received a fine in one case, while the public prosecutor dismissed another case.

38-year-old Phonchai comes from an indigenous Karen community in Mae Hong Son’s Mae La Noi District. After leaving home as a teenager, Phonchai worked in a restaurant in Chiang Mai in exchange for food and accommodation. He then decided to move to Bangkok to find work. He said in an interview with TLHR that he spent around a year homeless before getting a job as a security guard. Before he was charged, he has been working as a salesman, going from house to house selling mobile phones or helping real estate agents.

Phonchai said he first joined a protest on 14 October 2020, and then on 16 October 2020, both of which were met with police violence. He told TLHR that he wanted to be an example for indigenous people and show that they can participate in political movements and fight for their rights.

He noted that having to travel back and fourth from Nonthaburi to Yala and Chiang Mai meant he lost time he could have been working, and it cost him a considerable amount of money, but his travel expenses have been covered by the Da Torpedo Fund, which supports political prisoners and covers the expenses of people fighting political charges.

Phonchai said he joined the protests because he wanted to see changes in the country and because he wanted indigenous peoples to have equal access to rights and opportunities, such as education and employment, and for them to be free from discrimination.

Regular protest-goer Worawan Sae-aung has been found guilty of violating the Emergency Decree and indecent exposure for stripping in front of a line of crowd control police at a protest on 28 September 2021 to protest the use of violence to disperse protests. She received a total fine of 34,000 baht.

Worawan, or “Auntie Pao,” a 68-year-old fruit vendor who regularly attends protests and is known for her sharp tongue, was charged with violation of the Emergency Decree and committing a shameful act by indecently exposing her person under Section 388 of the Thai Criminal Code. The charges result from a protest on 28 September 2021 at the Nang Loeng intersection demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, during which Worawan took off her clothes, laid down on the ground, and opened her legs in front of a line of crowd control police in protest at their use of violence to disperse protests.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that on Monday (13 March), the Dusit District Court found Worawan guilty of both charges, fining her 30,000 baht for violating the Emergency Decree and 4000 baht for public nudity.

During witness examination, Worawan testified that she was not an organizer of the protest, that she was there as a vendor and was a peaceful participant, and that the protest site was an open and well-ventilated area. She said that her stripping was a symbolic act of protest to prevent crowd control police from arresting protesters and therefore not shameful.

Nevertheless, the court found her guilty on the grounds that the protest was at risk of spreading Covid-19 as the area was crowded and traffic was blocked by protesters, who were not social distancing. It also ruled that she is guilty of indecent exposure because her stripping was a sexually inappropriate action, did not lead to solutions for the protesters’ demands, and did not encourage the exercise of democratic rights and freedom.

In Prachatai’s 2021 Person of the Year interview, Worawan said she was not embarrassed by being naked, and that she wanted to distract the police from arresting or assaulting protesters out of concern that they would be hurt. She also told reporters, after she was summoned to Nang Loeng Police Station to hear the charges, that her action represents the fight of people who have nothing but their bodies to fight against the crowd control police trying to disperse their protests.

Hong Kong national security police have arrested an activist over suspected foreign collusion, with reports identifying her as the wife of detained former lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan.

Elizabeth Tang was apprehended outside Stanley Prison at around noon on Thursday, media outlets including iCable and Sing Tao reported.

She was arrested after visiting Lee in jail, iCable said. Tang is understood to have moved to the UK in 2021.

Police confirmed on Thursday night that a 65-year-old woman had been arrested for “suspected collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.”

Tang was chief executive of the pro-democracy Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) until 2011, according to her LinkedIn page. The group was among the dozens that disbanded in the wake of the national security law imposed by Beijing in June 2020.

She is currently the general secretary of the International Domestic Workers Federation, a global organisation advocating for the rights of domestic workers with affiliates in 68 countries, according to the group’s website.

HKFP has reached out to the police for comment. Ex-lawmaker husband

Her husband Lee, a former leader of the Tiananmen vigil organiser the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, is currently detained under the national security law. He and two other ex-leaders, Chow Hang-tung and Albert Ho, and the group itself, stand accused of incitement to subversion.

The case was transferred to the High Court in September, where the highest penalty for incitement to subversion is 10 years’ imprisonment.

Lee was denied bail in December, when a judge ruled there were insufficient grounds for believing that he would not continue to commit acts endangering national security if bail was granted.

In June 2020, Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution – bypassing the local legislature – following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which were broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers, alarming democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China. However, the authorities say it has restored stability and peace to the city. ‘Getting off scot-free’

Tang was the target of reports by Beijing-controlled local media outlet Ta Kung Pao in September 2021, when the newspaper accused her of receiving funding from foreign organisations as a board member of labour rights advocacy group Asia Monitor Resource Centre.

Ta Kung Pao added that the centre operated “under” HKCTU, which pro-Beijing supporters have long accused of having close ties with overseas organisations.

After Ta Kung Pao’s report, the centre said it was “independent of any local or international organisations” and said it would cease operations in Hong Kong amid pressure that had “intensified significantly.”

The Asia Monitor Resource Centre conducts advocacy work across the continent. Its website still lists its Hong Kong address.

In November 2021, pro-Beijing supporters petitioned outside the police headquarters, asking why Tang was allowed to “get off scot-free” after Lee had already been “brought to justice.”

Tang’s reported arrest comes days after Chief Executive John Lee met with director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Xia Baolong in Beijing. Lee said Xia told the leader that the Hong Kong government must “nip in the bud” any acts that endanger national security.

“We will definitely crack down on any [forces] trying to undermine national security or breach the peace of Hong Kong society, or [hurt] Hong Kong’s overall interests – and hold them legally responsible under the law,” Lee, who was in the nation’s capital to attend the start of the National People’s Congress session, said on Monday.

Venerable Soy Sat was arrested on 9 March 2023 in Battambang province and detained overnight at the provincial police station. The monk was defrocked and released on the evening of 10 March, and consequently forced back into civilian life.

The arrest occurred during Venerable Soy Sat’s ongoing religious march, which started on 1 March 2023 in the capital and was set to end roughly 350 kilometres away in the border city of Poipet.

Venerable Soy Sat marched to highlight seven demands, including calling for monks who join social actions to not be expelled from pagodas; for courts to not be improperly used against activists; for respect for all citizens’ freedom of expression; for the fair resolution of land conflicts; and for the release of politicians, civil society members, and youths currently detained in prison.

The arrest in Battambang followed an earlier disruption on 7 March 2023, when authorities from neighbouring Pursat province briefly stopped the activist monk and questioned him.

This is the second time this year that Venerable Soy Sat took part in a national march across multiple provinces. In late January, the monk joined a march headed by then-union leader Rong Chhun, who is now a Vice President of the Candlelight Party. Upon returning to his home in Plaoch pagoda in Kampong Speu, Venerable Soy Sat was told he could no longer reside there. He has been living in a nearby forested area since.

Two protesters arrested on Thursday (9 March) and charged with royal defamation and contempt of court for singing and speaking at a protest in July 2022 have been denied bail.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that Chen Chiwabancha, a 55-year-old YouTuber, was arrested at around 16.00 on Thursday (9 March) while at a protest in front of the Ratchadapisek Criminal Court. He was arrested on a warrant from the South Bangkok Criminal Court on charges of royal defamation, contempt of court, defamation by publication, and using a sound amplifier without permission. TLHR noted that he had never received a summons before being arrested.

While Chen was detained at Yannawa Police Station, at around 18.25, police also arrested Ngoentra Khamsaen, a regular protest-goer also known as Mani, who went to Yannawa Police Station after Chen was arrested. She faced the same charges as Chen, and also had never received a summons before being arrested.

TLHR reported that the charges result from a protest on 28 July 2022 in front of the South Bangkok Criminal Court, and that they were filed by the Court of Justice. The police claimed that the protesters gave speeches without requesting permission to use a sound amplifier and put up banners insulting the court. They also sang a song called “Lucky to have Thai people,” which the police claimed insults the monarchy.

The song was written by the protest band Faiyen, known for writing songs critical of the monarchy. Members of the band have been charged with royal defamation and fled the country after the 2014 coup.

“Lucky to have Thai people” [link blocked in Thaiand] is a song about how Thai people are made to love the King through many means and the punishment the people will face if they do not love the King.

Another protester has previously been arrested for singing the song during a protest in August 2022. TLHR also reported 4 other cases in which someone has been charged with royal defamation for singing or playing the song. In all 5 cases, the accused was granted bail.

Chen and Ngoentra were detained overnight at Yannawa Police Station. They were taken to the South Bangkok Criminal Court the following morning for a temporary detention request and were denied bail. The court claimed that the charges carry a high penalty and that they are likely to flee or commit other dangerous offence. The order was signed by judge Phaibun Thongnuam.

Ngoentra has previously been detained when she was arrested in August 2022 on charges of contempt of court, defamation, and using a sound amplifier without permission relating to a protest on 15 July 2022. She was denied bail and detained for 9 days before being granted bail.

Abid Mir, a human rights activist and journalist from Balochistan, has gone missing from Islamabad.

According to his family, he disappeared after going to an ATM on Wednesday evening. Mir, who is known for his social media activism and his work on human rights in Balochistan, was last seen at the Baloch Aurat March, which took place on Wednesday.

Mir's brother Khalid Mir released a video on Twitter in which he stated that the family is in contact with the police to register a missing-persons FIR. He further stated that Mir had not been involved in any controversial issues lately, and he did not have any specific threat from anybody.

Islamabad police however announced later on Thursday night that Mir had returned home.

In a tweet, the capital police said that the impression of Abid going missing was false and had been created after the journalist lost contact with his family.

The Islamabad police thanked all the citizens and journalists who contacted the force regarding Abid Mir's disappearance.

The disappearance of the Baloch activist has raised grave concerns on social media. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also expressed concern and urged the Islamabad Police to investigate the matter immediately.

Many journalists and social media activists have voiced their concern over Mir’s missing, including journalist Hamid Mir.

Mir worked as a regional editor for Lok Sujag – a multimedia investigative journalism platform that focuses on issues and communities marginalised in the mainstream media and policy discourse.

The disappearance of Abid Mir has brought attention to the increasing number of missing persons cases in Pakistan. Former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has claimed that the number of cases has increased during the tenure of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The disappearance of Abid Mir is a matter of great concern, and it is essential that the authorities take immediate action to ensure his safe return. The media community and human rights organisations are closely monitoring the situation and urging the authorities to act swiftly.

Six university students who were arrested during Wednesday (8) night's protest at the Kelaniya University will be produced to the Mahara Magistrate on Thursday (9).

Sri Lanka Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse a group of university students at the Kelaniya University premises. This protest commenced at around 9 PM on Wednesday (8).

This protest was organized against the arrest of Student Leader Kelum Mudannayake, and Student Activist Dilshan Harshana, and the students demanded their immediate release.

Though tear gas and water cannons were used multiple times to disperse the protesting students, they continued to engage in the protest until midnight.

One lane along the Colombo - Kandy main road was completely blocked due to the protest, disrupting the movement of traffic.

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and seven of its member organisations condemn police violence against peaceful Aurat March protesters in Pakistan on International Women’s Day.

Since 2018, the Aurat March has been organized annually by feminist organisations to bring to attention the socio-political problems and violence faced by women and gender minorities as a result of the country’s patriarchal practices. The Aurat March has continuously faced significant backlash from both State and non-State actors.

“Over the years, Aurat March has become a vital platform for gender rights activism in Pakistan. It has brought attention to the systemic patriarchal discrimination and violence that women and gender minorities in Pakistan continue to face daily. It is a powerful call for equality and justice. We unequivocally support Aurat March’s commitment towards a gender-just Pakistan. We condemn the use of force against peaceful protesters,” said the rights groups.

This year, the Aurat March faced immense challenges. In Lahore, the district administration did not permit organisers to hold the event citing Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 144 is a colonial-era law used to crush dissent that prohibits all sorts of assemblies, including sit-ins, rallies, processions, demonstrations, and protests.

Meanwhile, in Islamabad, the police baton-charged participants. Protesters were also confronted with barbed wires and containers on their march route, alongside a heavy police deployment. Triggered by the ongoing transphobia in the country, as evident in the efforts to undo the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018, police and media personnel questioned transgender people joining the protest. Subsequently, the police also resorted to using lathi (baton), injuring several organisers and participants. Staffers from FORUM-ASIA’s member organization, Forum for Dignity Initiatives, were also injured during the lathi charge.

The Aurat March has been at the receiving end of violence and intense opposition from conservative political parties since its inception. In 2020, petitions to ban the Aurat March were filed before the Lahore High Court. Although the courts ruled such a ban to be unconstitutional, many political groups called the March ‘vulgar’ and threatened protesters. In 2021, protesters from Peshawar were charged with blasphemy for allegedly carrying ‘un-Islamic and obscene’ placards. They also received threats from the extremist group Tehreek-e-Taliban. In 2022, amidst calls to ban the Aurat March, protesters encouraged Pakistan to reimagine legal, economic, and environmental justice, advocating for its alignment with the vision of a feminist future.

We remind the government of Pakistan of its obligations—under Article 16 of the Constitution of Pakistan and as a state party to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights—to uphold people’s right to peaceful protest and assembly. The ability to protest freely intersects with the right to be free from discrimination, including gender discrimination. Pakistan must work towards providing a conducive environment for its citizenry, especially women and gender minorities, for exercising their fundamental freedoms.

State security police surrounded the home of rights activist Li Wenzu and her rights lawyer husband Wang Quanzhang on International Women’s Day, as a U.S.-based rights group hit out at the country's intimidation and harassment of dissidents.

“They sent people to start blocking our door, and not allowing us to go out, from about 5 a.m.,” Wang said from the couple’s home in Beijing’s Shunyi district on Thursday. “They used open umbrellas and shone their flashlights at our security cameras to stop themselves being captured.”

“Our camera shot some blurry footage of them, and found out later that they’d stuck some kind of medicinal plaster over the lens,” he said.

But the harassment didn't stop there, said Wang, a prominent target of a nationwide police operation that detained hundreds of rights lawyers, law firm staff and activists starting on July 9, 2015, and who later sued the authorities over his treatment in detention.

“At around 7:30 a.m., they started knocking on the door,” he said, adding that when he had opened the door to speak with them, they said they were there due to “special circumstances,” as it was International Women’s Day.

“There were around 20 of them, front and back, with several of their vehicles parked outside the door,” said Wang, who also found that the tires of his car were flat on the same day.

“This happened on Human Rights Day last year too, so I’m even more sure that someone is doing this stuff deliberately,” he said. “Other lawyers [in my chat group] told me they had also found their tires punctured.”

Passport application denied

The harassment of Wang and his family comes as the ruling Chinese Communist Party steps up “stability maintenance” measures during the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

But fellow rights activist Wang Qiaoling said she believes the harassment could be linked to the fact that Li, who won the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in 2019, had planned to file an administrative review against her denied application for a passport, to mark International Women's Day.

“We were planning to go to the Beijing municipal government to submit an application for an administrative review [of that decision], which is actually a pretty common legal procedure,” Wang Qiaoling said. “I don’t understand why they had to go to such lengths [to stop it].”

As the state security police stood guard over Wang and Li, a report from the U.S.-based think tank Freedom House showed that China remains at the bottom of its global survey of freedoms, one of the few countries to have been described as "Not free" for five consecutive decades.

“China ranks near the absolute bottom in terms of overall political rights and civil liberties,” according to the “Freedom in the World 2023” report, which described the country as unmatched in its ability to deploy technology in the service of a surveillance state. “Those who criticized the party received severe penalties.”

It said no country could match the scale and sophistication of the Chinese surveillance state.

“Residents’ activities are invasively monitored by public security cameras, urban grid managers, and automated systems that detect suspicious and banned behavior, including innocuous expressions of ethnic and religious identity,” the report said.

“Those identified as dissidents can face consequences including forced disappearance and torture,” it said. “Protesters continued to encounter pervasive surveillance, abusive interrogations, and intimidation at the hands of authorities.”

Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the U.S.-based rights group Human Rights in China, said there is still plenty of resistance to abuses of power by the government, citing the white paper movement of November 2022 that prompted a swift retreat from the rolling lockdowns, mass quarantine and compulsory testing of supreme leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy.

“On the one hand, the Chinese Communist Party stepped up controls and concentrated its power, and its darkness reached a peak,” Zhou said.

“But on the other hand, there was also unprecedented resistance to trouble the waters, particularly in the second half of the year,” he said. “Eventually, that culminated in the white paper movement of late November.”

About the Human Rights Defender: Mr. Rabin Das is a journalist based in Bhuban block of Dhenkanal district. He works with the Odia daily Sambad, and has extensively reported on illegal mining, corruption and pilferage in rural Odisha.

Background of the Incident: On February 19, Mr. Rabin Das published a story in the Odia daily Sambad regarding corruption worth Rs. 13 lakh in the MGNREGA programme in Bhuban block. Mr. Das’s report detailed how payments for the said amount was made in the name of hundreds of workers although no work was undertaken on ground.

On February 20, 2023, one day after Mr. Rabin Das exposed the major scam in MGNREGS through his reportage, two FIRs were registered against him at the Bhuban Police Station in Dhenkanal district.

The complainant in the first FIR (49/2023) was Mr.Lambodar Malik,resident of Ektali gram panchayat in Bhuban block. In the complaint, he claimed that Mr. Rabin Das owed him some money, but when he asked Mr. Das for the same at around 2 PM on February 20, Mr. Das abused him in casteist terms, attacked him and threatened to kill him. Mr. Das was charged under Sections 341, 294, 323, 307, 506 IPC, Sections 3 of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. Mr. PK Dey, SDPO was designated as Investigating Officer in the case.

The complainant in the second FIR (50/2023) was Litua Patra, of Balibo gram panchayat in Bhuban block.In the complaint, he claimed that Mr. Rabin Das owed him some money, but when he asked Mr. Das for the same at around 5 PM on February 20, Mr. Das abused him in casteist terms, attacked him and threatened to kill him. Mr. Das was charged under Sections 341, 294, 323, 506 the Indian Penal Code and Sections 2 and 3 of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. Mr. PK Dey, SDPO was designated as Investigating Officer in the case.

Details of the Incident: At around 11 AM on March 7, 2023, Mr. Das was buying medicines at Chanchala medicine shop in the Kali Bazar market area of Bhuban village, when he was approached by four policemen. The policemen – all in uniform and wearing name tags – were led by the Officer in Charge of Bhuban Police Station, Mr. Saubhagya Swain, who told Mr. Das that he was being arrested as there were cases under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against him.

The policemen forcibly arrested Mr. Das from the spot without showing any arrest warrant, or providing details of cases against him, or allowing him to contact his family and/or lawyerviolating multiple DK Basu guidelines of arrest and detentionas directed by the Honourable Supreme Court.

The policemen alsoparaded Mr. Das through the Kali Bazar market area for over one hour, with the Officer in Charge Mr. Swain asking him aloud where he had hidden the ganja. Mr. Swain also made a video of the parade before taking him away to the Bhuban police station.

On Match 07, 2023, Mr. Rabin Das was produced in court and remanded to judicial custody. He is currently lodged in Kamakshyanagar sub-jail. His family members and colleagues fear he may be falsely implicated in other additional cases.

A court in Kyrgyzstan has upheld a decision of the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports, and Youth Policies to block the websites of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, after the broadcaster refused to remove a report on a border dispute with neighboring Tajikistan.

The ruling by Bishkek's Administrative Court was announced on March 7 at an appeal hearing launched by RFE/RL that sought to have the October move to block the sites overturned. The court did not explain the reasoning behind its ruling.

RFE/RL's lawyers said they will appeal the court decision.

Representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports, and Youth Policies reiterated at the hearing that their decision was made due to RFE/RL's refusal to remove from its websites a video about deadly clashes along a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border in September, again emphasizing that the video took the position of the Tajik side.

The video in question was produced by Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America.

RFE/RL President and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Fly said the broadcaster "takes our commitment to balanced reporting seriously" and that after a review of the content in question, "no violation of our standards" was found.

Shortly after Radio Azattyk's websites in Kyrgyz and Russian were blocked in late October, Kyrgyzstan's State Financial Intelligence (FChK) informed RFE/RL that its bank accounts were frozen in accordance with the law on countering money laundering after "a flag was raised" by security services.

In December, the FChK told RFE/RL that after a special inspection, the media outlet was excluded from the registry of potential money launderers. However, RFE/RL's bank accounts remain frozen.

Dozens of media organizations, domestic and international rights groups, Kyrgyz politicians, and lawmakers have urged the government to unblock Radio Azattyk’s websites.

In early February, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the Kyrgyz authorities’ move to seek Radio Azattyk’s closure, saying the case poses “a major new obstacle to press freedom,” which it said is “under growing pressure” in Kyrgyzstan.

Vietnamese police have summoned two attorneys defending members of a Buddhist house church in Long An province, accusing them of violating a law that is widely used to imprison dissidents.

Attorneys Dang Dinh Manh and Dao Kim Lan, two of five defense lawyers working on a case involving the Peng Lei Buddhist Church are accused of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.

Vietnamese authorities routinely use the statute to attack those speaking out in defense of human rights.

Freedom of religion is technically enshrined in Vietnam’s constitution, but it also allows authorities to override rights, including religious freedom, for purposes of national security, social order, social morality and community well-being. Authorities have been aggressive in crushing various religious groups.

The one-party Vietnamese government also is notorious for violations of human rights, including the prosecuting of rights attorneys and other defenders, and ignoring international obligations to promote and protect them.

According to the notices, police summoned the lawyers after the Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention under Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security issued an advisory that some of the defense attorneys involved in the case showed signs of violating Article 331.

The summons for Dang Dinh Manh, dated March 6, instructed him to meet with police investigators on March 21, 2023, while the summons for Dao Kim Lan, dated March 8, told him to meet with them on March 15.

Many state-media outlets, including Tien Phong, or The Pioneers, and Phap Luat TPHCM, or the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper, reported that police were investigating the two lawyers.

In February, three lawyers — Dang Dinh Manh, Dao Kim Lan and Ngo Thi Hoang Anh — were notified by Long An police that they had “carried out activities of disseminating videos, images, statements and stories with signs of abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interests and legitimate rights and interests of individuals and organizations,” according to state media reports.

RFA could not reach Ngo Thi Hoang Anh to confirm that she had received a summons. Dang Dinh Manh and Dao Kim Lan refused to comment.

‘Abusing democratic freedoms’

The three lawyers and two others — Nguyen Van Mieng and Trinh Vinh Phuc — have been providing legal support for six members of the house church, who in July 2022 were sentenced to a combined 23 years and six months in prison on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331.

Duc Hoa district police and Venerable Thich Nhat Tu, a Buddhist monk, were the plaintiffs in the case.

Before the first-instance trial, lawyers sent an 11-page petition to Vietnam’s president and the heads of the National Assembly, Ministry of Public Security, and People’s Supreme Procuracy, highlighting indications of the violation of criminal procedures and judicial activities.

The lawyers also raised concern about the objectivity of the investigation because Duc Hoa district police, a plaintiff, was part of the probe.

The petition also indicated that police forced a Peng Lei nun to submit to a gynecological examination, offending her honor and dignity because the action was unrelated to the case.

Even though the lawyers’ complaints had not been addressed, the Duc Hoa People’s Court moved ahead, putting the six church members on trial and sentencing them each to three to five years in prison.

Police investigator Huynh Hung, who is in charge of the case against the lawyers, declined to answer Radio Free Asia’s questions about the case.

Attorney Nguyen Van Dai, who now lives in Germany, told RFA on Monday that the responsible agencies should have quickly responded to the petition filed by the church’s lawyers instead of launching an investigation against them.

“This was a serious violation of freedom of speech and press freedom of lawyers in general and citizens in general,” he said. “They [the authorities] used available tools, including the police and the procuracy, to dismiss the lawyers from their profession. This was an act of vindictiveness by the authorities towards human rights lawyers.”

Wang Zang and Wang Li previously lived at Beijing’s Songzhuang artists’ village, and had been targeted with repeated forced evictions for showing online support for the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Wang Li had several episodes of mental illness as a result of the evictions, including a spell in a psychiatric hospital and reported suicidal thoughts, friends told RFA at the time.

Beijing-based housing rights activist Ni Yulan said Wang Li has been left providing and caring for four children while Wang Zang is in prison.

“The fact that they resorted to threats to get Wang Li to delete video showing her current situation shows that they are the culpable ones,” Ni said.

“What is their ulterior motive here?”

On 4 March 2023, a Hong Kong government-designated national security judge at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court convicted woman human rights defender Chow Hang-tung and two other leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (the Hong Kong Alliance) for refusing to comply with the Hong Kong police’s request in August 2021 demanding disclosure of extensive information about its funding, activities, Board members, executives, and staff.

Sentencing is scheduled on 11 March 2023. The woman human rights defender and the two other Alliance leaders face up to six months in jail and a HKD100,000 fine (approximately EUR 11,919). Chow Hang-tung is also being prosecuted for “inciting subversion of State power” under the National Security Law in a separate case.

The police’s request for information was based on what it claimed were “reasonable grounds” for believing the Alliance was a “foreign agent”, and was issued under the Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, which grant expansive investigative powers to the police. However, during the trial, the prosecution concealed the identity of the foreign organisation for which it accused the Alliance of acting as a “foreign agent”, and a key police officer who testified also refused to answer questions regarding the identity of the foreign organisation. The judge also sided with the prosecution’s and the police’s argument that disclosure of such information would damage “the public interest” and “jeopardise on-going investigations” into other individuals and organisations.

Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) is a barrister and woman human rights defender in Hong Kong. At the time of her arrest on 8 September 2021 for refusing to provide data to the police, she was one of the vice-chairs of the Hong Kong Alliance. On 24 September 2021, as a result of the prosecution of the Alliance’s leaders and high risks of further prosecution, members of the Alliance voted to dissolve the organisation. On 26 October 2021, while the liquidation process for the Alliance was still on-going, then Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam issued an order for the Alliance be removed from the Companies Register on the basis that "the operation of the Alliance which seeks to end the Chinese Communist Party's leadership amounts to seeking to overthrow" the political system of the People's Republic of China and subverting state power.”

In his ruling, the national security judge also affirmed that the National Security Law itself as well as the decisions and actions of the National Security Committee, a new body created under the National Security Law, cannot be challenged in local court. The National S ecurity Committee, chaired by Hong Kong’s chief executive and supervised by the central Chinese government in Beijing, was responsible for developing the Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the National Security Law.

UN human rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns that the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules for Article 43 pose serious risks to the right to defend human rights and to freedom of expression, freedom of association, privacy, and a fair trial.

In September 2021, UN Special Procedures mandate-holders wrote to the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities about the detention of Chow Hang-tung. The experts said that detention and arrests of human rights defenders “form part of a broader operation to impose undue restrictions on the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly of pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong” and that such “a criminalisation of the exercise of human rights with reference to national security is incompatible with international human rights law.”

In July 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee, in its concluding observations on the implementation by the Hong Kong government of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), expressed concerns about the arbitrary arrests and detention of human rights defenders under the National Security Law and sedition law, calling for the suspension of enforcement of these laws and for their reform or repeal. The Committee stated that “Article 43(6) of the National Security Law and Schedule 6 of the Implementation Rules, which facilitate arbitrary intrusion into privacy for the purpose of public security or national security, are not compatible with article 17 of the Covenant.”

In February 2023, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also criticised the use of the National Security Law to target human rights defenders in Hong Kong, and was concerned that the law “has de facto abolished the independence of the judiciary.” It has called for a review of the Law to bring it into line with international human rights standards.

Front Line Defenders believes the arrest and subsequent prosecution of Chow Hang-tung and other Alliance members under the National Security Law are reprisals against their legitimate and peaceful human rights work. Both the substantive and procedural inconsistencies with international human rights standards seen in this case illustrate the intention and capacity of the Hong Kong authorities to use the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules to punish and intimidate human rights defenders and organisations and deter them from communicating or collaborating with or receiving support from international partners, other governments, and UN human rights mechanisms.

Front Line Defenders calls on the Hong Kong authorities to quash the conviction against Chow Hang-tung and the other Alliance leaders, release them immediately, and drop the other criminal charges against them. It reiterates its call on the central Chinese government to repeal the National Security Law and its Implementation Rules in Hong Kong.

Vietnamese authorities have barred relatives and legal counsel from meeting with a detained Facebook user under investigation for posting “illegal content,” prompting criticism from an international rights group, which called the move “a clear rights violation.”

Late last month, police in southern Vietnam’s Can Tho city arrested activist Le Minh The, 60, for posts on his Facebook page they allege were in violation of a vaguely worded law routinely used to suppress independent bloggers and journalists.

The was charged with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the State’s interests and legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” under Article 331, state media reported at the time.

On Friday, The’s younger sister, Le Thi Binh, told RFA Vietnamese that guards at the Long Tuyen Detention Center had refused her family the right to see him, although they agreed to let them deposit money for him to buy food and other necessities, as well as deliver him some meals.

“On [Wednesday], I went to the detention center to see my brother The and send him some food,” she said. “However, the detention center’s staff said I could not see him while he is under investigation. I called the investigation team, but they did not answer.”

Binh, who completed a two-year jail term on the same charge in late 2022, said that the Binh Thuy District Police had yet to provide her family with any documents related to The’s arrest, including a report detailing a search of their home on Feb. 22.

RFA called Officer Ky, who is investigating The’s case, but he refused to confirm Binh’s claims and referred further inquiries to the Binh Thuy Police Department. A staff member at the Binh Thuy Police Department told RFA that a reporter would have to meet with senior officers in person for any information about the case.

State media reports detailing The’s arrest claimed he had posted “illegal content” on Facebook, but did not specify what post had violated the law. The last post on The’s Facebook account concerned U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine on Feb. 21, while other posts included content about Vietnam, a police summons for his sister, information about homegrown electric car maker VinFast, and a recent RFA article about a fortune teller-turned-priest.

“Looking at his livestreams and other content [on Facebook], I didn’t see anything against the State,” Binh told RFA, noting that most of the articles he shared were published by state media.

“He talked about some corrupt government officials who had already been arrested. He also livestreamed a video about polluted wastewater in his neighborhood.”

Prior sentence on same charges

The charges facing The are the same ones he was sentenced to two years in prison for in March 2019. He completed his jail term in July 2020, accounting for time spent in detention prior to his conviction.

Both The and his sister were refused visits from their families while they were under investigation for their earlier charges – a policy Hanoi Bar Association lawyer Ha Huy Son told RFA is only applicable to people accused of committing “offenses against national security,” which they were not.

Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said there is “no acceptable reason” for authorities to prevent legal counsel and relatives from visiting The.

“Every time the authorities commit such a clear rights violation, it undermines Hanoi's claims to be providing free and fair trials to those it prosecutes in court,” he said in an emailed statement to RFA. “What's clear is that the police believe they enjoy impunity to do whatever they want, and that laws do not necessarily apply to them."

Robertson said the fact that The was arrested for expressing his opinions on his Facebook page demonstrates the Vietnamese government’s intolerance of dissent.

“Although freedom of speech is a universal human right and should not be criminalized, in Vietnam the authorities often harass, intimidate, and arrest anyone speaking up against government policy,” he said.

Anticipating another significant jail term for The, Robertson called on the international community to take action. “Foreign diplomats should be demanding that Hanoi stop these kinds of arrests, and immediately and unconditionally release Le Minh The,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rafia Haider has rejected permission to organise the Aurat March on the grounds of security concerns, ‘controversial’ cards and banners supporting women’s rights, and the likelihood of clashes with members of Jamaat-i-Islami’s ‘Haya March’.

Civil society, political parties, and rights organisations condemned the deputy commissioner for rejecting the plea to organise Aurat March on International Women’s Day on March 8.

The Aurat March organizing committee had requested a no objection certificate (NOC) from the district administration to hold a rally on March 8 at Nasser Bagh, Lahore, followed by a march around the perimeter of the park.

However, DC Haider rejected the plea in the wake of threat alerts from security agencies.

“Following the current security scenario, threat alerts, and law and order situation, and in light of activities like controversial cards and banners for awareness of women’s rights and the strong reservation of the general public and religious organizations, especially JI’s women’s and student wings, who had also announced a program against the Aurat March,” said a statement issued by the DC. There is fear of conflict between the two groups, therefore, the NOC may not be issued for the holding of the Aurat March and Convention at Alhamra Hall, The Mall, and Aiwan-i-Iqbal, and a rally from the Lahore Press Club to Charing Cross, and also at a rally at Nasser Bagh, on March 8 to avoid any law and order situation or mishap.

The Aurat March organising committee strongly condemned the DC for rejecting their application to hold the event. “Women, khawaja sara community, transgender persons, gender non-conforming people, and allies of the Aurat March have the right to the assembly under Article 16 of the Constitution of Pakistan,” they said.

They said that the DC denied the NOC under the pressure of the JI’s “Haya March.”

They said the denial to hold Aurat March was against their constitutional right, and the DC did not take action against the group for inciting violence against them.

They said they were denied permission to gather at Nasser Bagh and other avenues, such as the Lahore Press Club, Alhamra, and The Mall. “We do not require an NOC to exercise our constitutional right to march. There is no legitimate “public order” rationale to prevent us from assembling, marching and making our voices heard,” reads the statement.

They added the administration has forgotten that the courts have already upheld their right to hold Aurat March in 2020. “Lahore and Islamabad high courts upheld the march’s constitutional right to speech and assembly and directed the government to grant permission to carry out the march,” the committee said.

They said they would hold the march on March 8 and would not allow anyone to snatch their constitutional right.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also strongly condemned the Lahore district administration for rejecting Aurat March organisers permission to hold a public rally marking International Women’s Day on March 8.

“It is regrettable that their right to peaceful assembly is routinely challenged by the district administration because ‘controversial’ placards and ‘strong reservations’ from the public and religious organisations ostensibly create law-and-order risks. This is a poor defence.”

The HRCP demanded that the caretaker Punjab government uphold the Aurat March’s right to freedom of peaceful assembly and provide the marchers with full security.

One of the committee members, Hiba, told Dawn that the DC allowed the JI to hold a rally to celebrate their “Haya Day” but refused to permit to hold Aurat March.

She said the administration was rejecting their plea discriminatory. “We’ll approach the court to get permission as the march organizers got permission to hold a march in the past too,” she said.

A women's labor organization in Hong Kong canceled a march last weekend to mark International Women’s Day amid threats from police that they would arrest key activists.

The move comes despite the lifting of bans on public gatherings in Hong Kong and criticism by a United Nations rights expert about curbs on civil society and rights activism under a draconian security law.

"We have regretfully decided to cancel the Women's Day rally and demonstration that were scheduled for tomorrow," the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association said in a brief statement on its Facebook account on Saturday, without giving a reason for the change. "Apologies for this!"

The League of Social Democrats, a pro-democracy political party led by veteran rights activists that would have taken part in the event, said police had claimed that "violent elements" had been planning to join the rally.

"We are sure the reasons behind the decision are patently obvious to the public," the group said in a statement on its Facebook page, adding: "Two days before the march, four LSD members were warned by the National Security Police that they must not join the march, or else they will be arrested."

League Chairperson Chan Po-ying said she and three other members were hauled in by national security police on March 3 and warned that they would be arrested if they took part in the event.

"They called last Friday ... and sent a car to take me to the police station," Chan told Radio Free Asia. "They got straight to the point and told us that we couldn't take part in the demonstration, without giving the reason."

"They just said that we are well-known figures ... When I asked what would happen if I insisted on going, he told me very clearly that I would be arrested," she said. "He wouldn't answer my questions ... just told me not to go."

Chan said it's possible that the authorities are trying to avoid any public protest or dissent during the annual session of China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress in Beijing.

‘Deeply infuriated’

The League of Social Democrats said on Facebook that it was "deeply infuriated that our joining of a legal protest was met with intimidation and obstruction by the National Security Police," it said.

"Under such pressure, we decided not to attend. Yet we still hoped the march would go ahead, and the flags of gender equality and the rights of women from the grassroots would fly high on the streets."

It said Hong Kongers' freedom of expression and right to protest were now in "shreds."

Human rights experts at the United Nations seemed to agree, issuing a report that was highly critical of human rights protections in Hong Kong following a review of economic, social and cultural rights in Geneva last month.

"The Committee is concerned about reports of arrests, detentions and trials without due process of civil society actors, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers working on human rights, disbarment of such lawyers, and others working to defend economic, social and cultural rights," the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights said in concluding comments following the review process.

It called for a review of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party from July 1, 2020, and for a national security hotline taking tip-offs from informers about breaches of the law – which criminalizes criticism of the authorities – to be abolished.

"The Committee ... concerned that the national security hotline is used extensively and might have detrimental effects on the work and expression of civil society, trade unions, teachers and other actors, including those mentioned above, working on human rights," it said.

‘Mobs in black’

Hong Kong Chief Executive and former police chief John Lee said the organizers of public events have a legal responsibility to ensure it doesn't break the law.

"Anyone who is not confident, is incompetent, or is worried about whether they can do this should not organize public activities, because they have to bear the legal responsibility," he warned.

"We have felt the pain caused to Hong Kong by mobs in black to Hong Kong," Lee said, in a reference to the 2019 protest movement that won broad popular support at the time for its calls for fully democratic elections and better official accountability.

Former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, who fled into exile amid the citywide crackdown that followed the 2019 protests, said police now appear unwilling to allow any kind of political activity in public.

"My analysis is that the police want to ban demonstrations, and they're not going to give them any opportunity," Hui said. "The police didn't reject the application for the demonstration, so next time they go to the United Nations or face [criticism from] Western countries, they can say they approved it, but that the group canceled it."

"Threatening to arrest people unless they refrain from taking part in a demonstration is very indicative [of the authorities' attitude] and a blatant violation of the Basic Law," he said.

Current affairs commentator Sang Pu said Beijing is continuing to manipulate civil society and political participation in Hong Kong, citing the recent cancellation of the Democratic Party's spring fundraiser by the venue, which said it had an issue with its gas supply.

"This is the Chinese Communist Party ... fully implementing the model it uses [to control] the Chinese people in Hong Kong," Sang said.

"It's very similar to the methods they used to suppress lawyers caught up in the July 9, 2015 crackdown [on rights attorneys, public interest law firms and rights activists]," he said.

He said claims by the Hong Kong government that the city is getting back to normal were misleading, and that normalcy can't happen with the national security law still in place.

A human rights lawyer who represented Ai Weiwei against the Chinese government has "disappeared" after trying to board a train to the southern province of Guangdong, according to rights activists.

Liu Xiaoyuan was stopped by police on March 1 as he tried to travel to Zhuhai city from Ganzhou in the eastern province of Jiangxi, the Weiquanwang rights website reported.

"I was stopped by police from the Ganzhou West Railway Station public security station in Jiangxi province, en route to Zhuhai," Liu wrote in a WeChat post before going incommunicado.

"I asked for a written record [of this interaction], but they refused."

The incident comes as China has stepped up detentions of dissidents and religious figures ahead of the annual session of its rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress.

Liu, a former member of the now-shuttered public interest law firm Beijing Fengrui, went incommunicado on the eve of the annual session in Beijing, a time when the authorities typically target critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The lawyer previously represented Ai Weiwei when the globally renowned artist was detained in 2011. Ai once called him “the best lawyer in China”.

Other clients have included journalists and activists accused of subverting the Chinese Communist Party.

Stopped by rail police

Before going missing, Liu wrote that he had been stopped by rail police while attempting to travel.

The Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website also reported concerns about Liu's whereabouts, tweeting a message from the lawyer on the day of his "disappearance."

"My ID card showed up as invalid when I went through the [automatic security] gates, and it wouldn't let me through with just a train ticket," Liu said in comments posted by the group to Twitter.

"Then four railway policemen surrounded me and wouldn't let me go, and the duty supervisor even wanted to confiscate my ID card," he wrote.

"[They said] they were assisting the state security police in my hometown of Suichuan county with their investigation," Liu said.

A fellow rights lawyer who asked to remain anonymous confirmed the rights groups' accounts.

"Liu [told me] last night that he didn't eat, because he was waiting for them to give him an explanation," the lawyer said. "I haven't been able to contact him since [Wednesday] afternoon."

"His mobile phone is switched on, but nobody is picking up," he said.

He said Liu has been repeatedly harassed and persecuted by the government since he was targeted in a 2015 nationwide police operation that saw hundreds of lawyers, law firm staff and rights activists detained, hauled in for questioning and even jailed for subversion.

Stripped of license

Authorities in Beijing stripped Liu of his license to practice as a lawyer in October 2019 after he published a photo of himself selling insecticide as a street vendor - an image that could be considered “a kind of art…[and] a complaint against the abuse of power” by authorities who had forced the shutdown of his law firm he told RFA at the time.

An employee who answered the phone at the Ganzhou municipal railway police department declined to comment when contacted by Radio Free Asia on Thursday about Liu’s disappearance.

Meanwhile, veteran journalist Gao Yu has been taken to the eastern province of Shandong under police escort, while police in the southwestern province of Guizhou have placed more than a dozen members of the banned Guizhou Human Rights Forum under detention or house arrest, activists told Radio Free Asia.

Prominent dissidents Zha Jianguo and Ji Feng are both under house arrest or close surveillance, as is rights activist Li Wei, who posted that he was "going out to walk around and shop, with personal carers alongside," in an apparent reference to state security police minders.

Guizhou rights activists Chen Xi, Li Renke, Liao Shuangyuan, and Shen Youlian have all been placed under close surveillance, while a local Protestant church member said Guizhou pastor Yang Hua is currently under travel restrictions that will likely end in mid-March, after the National People's Congress closes.

Bleeding and apparently afflicted with uterine fibroids, Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Nguyen Thi Tam has been suffering in prison without adequate medical care, her family told Radio Free Asia.

Human rights groups have blamed her condition on horrible prison conditions and demanded her immediate release.

Tam is serving a 6-year sentence at Gia Trung Prison in the southern central province of Gia Lai for “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” in violation of Article 117 of the penal code – a law frequently used by authorities to quiet dissent.

During a phone call on Mar. 3, Tam told her daughter Nguyen Thi Mai that she was suffering from severe bleeding and declining health and had to be sent to the Gia Lai provincial hospital on Feb. 28. She made the 50-kilometer (31-mile) journey in a box truck with no medical personnel on hand.

"My mother said that she felt exhausted and weak as many parts of the road were bumpy while she was bleeding a lot. However, the driver refused to stop,” Mai told RFA’s Vietnamese Service. “The doctor concluded that my mother had uterine fibroids, but she was not allowed to stay at the hospital for monitoring or proper treatment."

Tam was sent back to the prison on the same day, and she is now receiving treatment at the prison’s clinic, but the condition has left her weak to the point that she cannot even walk without the help of others.

Dong Tam commune dispute

Authorities arrested Tam and three others in June 2020 for expressing their opinions on social media about a land dispute at the Dong Tam commune that turned violent when authorities raided the commune in January of that year, leading to the deaths of three protesters and a village leader.

Tam has served prison sentences twice before in 2008 and 2014.

Conditions at the prison are difficult, Mai said. She said Tam told her that she was ordered to participate in cleaning the prison, but given no specific goal or target like other inmates, and she was “allowed” to grow vegetables for her own consumption.

Failure to participate in the prison labor would result in constant confinement in her cell and she would be denied opportunities to move around or communicate with other inmates.

Additionally, the prison’s water is unclean, so inmates are forced to buy bottled water from the prison canteen for a 500,000 dong fee (more than US$20).

RFA attempted to contact the Gia Trung Prison to verify the information but no one answered the phone.

The London-based Amnesty International told RFA that the prison’s failure to provide proper medical treatment to Nguyen Thi Tam has made her ongoing medical problems worse.

Joe Freedman, the media manager for Amnesty International’s Southeast Asia Office, said in an email that three other prisoners of conscience had passed away because of poor or late medical treatment in Vietnamese prisons.

"Amnesty International is calling on the Vietnamese authorities to urgently provide adequate health care to Nguyen Thi Tam and to immediately and unconditionally release her and other activists imprisoned for peacefully exercising their human rights," he said.

Police in Sri Lanka on Sunday fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters angry over a decision to postpone local elections after the government said it cannot finance them because of the country’s crippling economic crisis.

About 15 people were treated for minor injuries, according to Colombo National Hospital.

Thousands of supporters of the opposition National People’s Power party tried to march toward the main business district in capital Colombo, ignoring police warnings after a court order barred them from entering the area, which includes the president’s residence, office and several key government buildings.

The order had been obtained in the backdrop of last July’s massive protests, when thousands of people stormed the presidential office and residence and occupied them for days. The crisis forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.

The turmoil was caused by severe shortages of some foods, fuel, cooking gas and medicine, after Sri Lanka went bankrupt because it could not repay its foreign debt. The new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, negotiated a rescue package with the International Monetary Fund for $2.9 billion over four years, but it can be finalized only if Sri Lanka’s creditors give assurances on debt restructuring.

Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt exceeds $ 51 billion, of which it must repay $28 billion by 2027. India and several other creditor countries have so far given assurances that meet the IMF standards, but the deal hinges on whether China would agree to debt restructuring at the same level.

The Finance Ministry under Wickremesinghe said it can’t allocate sufficient funds for the March 9 elections for town and village councils, even though political parties had submitted nominations.

The decision forced the Election Commission to indefinitely postpone the elections.

Despite signs of progress in reducing shortages and ending daily power cuts after nearly a year, Wickremesinghe is immensely unpopular. Many people say he lacks the mandate because he was elected by lawmakers backed by Rajapaksa supporters. They accuse Wickremesinghe of protecting members of the Rajapaksa family from corruption allegations in return for backing him in Parliament.

The National People’s Power party, which organized Sunday’s rally, has only three lawmakers in Sri Lanka’s 225-member Parliament but it enjoys a wave of public support after the economic crisis eroded the popularity of traditional political parties that have ruled Sri Lanka since independence.

An individual who was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital following the protest staged by the Jathika Jana Balavegaya in Colombo on Sunday (27) has died.

General Secretary of the JVP Tilvin Silva speaking to reporters in Colombo on Monday (27) said a peaceful protest by the JJB was attacked, and as a result of an attack around 28 people were hospitalized due to injuries.

"Two people were in critical condition. One of them passed away on Monday (27) afternoon. He was one named, Nimal Amarasiri, a candidate for the Nivithigala Pradeshiya Sabha of the Ratnapura District," he added.

Silva said the government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe should be responsible for the life that was lost, adding that the JJB did not want any confrontation with police and only wanted to protest demanding their right for an election.

Authorities in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh must thoroughly investigate the shooting of journalist Devendra Khare and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

At about 7:30 p.m. on February 26, two masked men shot at Khare, a reporter for the privately owned Hindi-language broadcaster News1India, at his office in the Chandpur Balu Mandi area of the city of Jaunpur, according to multiple news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ by phone. He was injured in his stomach and right hand and remained hospitalized in stable condition as of March 2, he said.

Khare told CPJ that he believed the attack was retaliation for his February 15 reporting on an alleged assault by the brother of a local political leader.

“The shooting of Devendra Khare underscores the precarious conditions that journalists work under in India,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Uttar Pradesh authorities must swiftly hold the perpetrators accountable and take action to guarantee the safety of journalists throughout the state.”

On February 15, Khare broadcast a news story on News1India alleging that Rituraj Singh, brother of the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jaunpur district branch, had assaulted a fellow right-wing politician, according to those news reports.

On February 18, two of Singh’s associates threatened the journalist at his office, warning him not to report further on the incident, Khare told The Print and CPJ.

Jaunpur police opened an investigation into the shooting, accusing Singh and unidentified individuals of attempted murder, criminal intimidation, and criminal conspiracy, according to those news reports. Khare told CPJ that he had not been informed of any arrests in the case as of March 2.

CPJ texted Jaunpur Circle Officer Kuldeep Kumar Gupta for comment but did not receive any replies. CPJ was unable to find contact details for Singh.

Previously, on February 6, journalist Shashikant Warishe was killed in Maharashtra state following his reporting on a land dispute.

Nine Boeng Tamok lake residents face charges of “intentional acts of violence and obstruction of public officials” and were placed under court supervision following a February 21 warrant issued by the Phnom Penh Municipal court.

The residents received the warrant in the morning and were ordered to appear in court by the afternoon. They did not attend because their lawyer from human rights NGO Licadho was unavailable, they said.

Court spokesperson Y Rin said there was no further information to share and Lim Sokuntheara, the judge who issued the warrant, could not be reached for comment.

For years, the outspoken residents of Samraong Tboung village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh have protested the filling-in of Boeng Tamok, one of the capital’s last remaining natural lakes. They are also on the verge of being evicted from their homes and losing their livelihoods fishing and harvesting vegetation from the lake as a series of land giveaways to well-connected elites and developers transform the landscape.

Prak Sophea, a prominent activist and resident of Samraong Tboung village along the lake, denied the allegations. She said the charges likely arose after an altercation between authorities and residents in October last year.

Local authorities had barred residents from making home repairs on the grounds they were illegal squatters and gave them packs of noodles as compensation. A group of frustrated villagers later burned the donated gifts in front of village security officers, who kicked the embers at them. In response, the villagers threw rice. The embers burned Sophea and forced her to visit the hospital for treatment, she said.

“Should we stand for the authorities to beat us, can we not defend ourselves?” said Sophea, a 43-year-old mother of three. “Does the law allow us to protect ourselves or let the authorities beat people?”

Committing an “intentional act of violence” carries a maximum of three years imprisonment and a six million riel fine, while “obstruction of public officials” could lead to a one year prison sentence and two million riel fine, according to the Cambodian criminal code.

Sophea and at least 10 villagers have already been ordered to appear in court a combined three times since 2022.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court previously issued a court summons in August 2022 for seven representatives of Samraong Tboung village, including Sophea. The Prek Pnov district head of security claimed the residents had committed obstruction of public officials, incitement and public disorder.

Soeun Sreysoth, 32, said herself, her husband and her brother were named in the most recent court summons. She added that she is disappointed as they had merely sought to raise their voices to secure legal land ownership of property they have occupied for years.

“It is injustice for citizens because we are just advocating, fighting for our housing rights, but the authorities issued a warrant to threaten us,” she said.

According to urban poor NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), at least 2,244.45 hectares of the lake’s 3,239.69 hectares have been filled in with sand, following a 2016 sub-decree allowing the government to rent or sell land in and around the lake.

In recent years, filled-in areas around Boeng Tamok lake have been distributed to wealthy and powerful individuals and companies. Recipients include ruling party CPP senator Kok An, Chea Sophalen, the daughter of Land Minister Chea Sophara, military commanders Vong Pisen and Sao Sokha and the famous singer Preap Sovath.

Out of many companies, the director of Orkide Villa, Nuth Ton also received 67 hectares of Boeng Tamok lake in September last year. Orkide is chaired by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s daughter Hun Mana, while his other daughter Hun Maly and daughter-in-law Pich Chanmony are also directors in Orkide-brand firms.

Samraong Tboung villagers have not received any land titles or been classified as legal residents but they have always been able to vote for elections, they say.

Soeung Saran, STT’s executive director, said he appreciated development around Phnom Penh but not without consideration of its impact.

“Before developing, we should think about the long-term impact on society and the environment,” he said. “I would like to see more assessments of the social, economic, and environmental impacts before making a decision to modify the land.”

Am Phoeun, a mother of four named in the August 2022 court summons, said that while she has making a living fishing from the lake since 2007, she is now preparing to migrate to Thailand to find another source of income.

“Due to the development and landfill of the lake, We don’t have an income except to decide to migrate,” she said. “We used to depend on fishing, but when the authorities landfill the lake, my family and I got a big effect from it.”

Sophea, she asked the government to find justice for citizens and to let them live where they are because she thought that she would get enough income by living here, such as by selling drinking water.

“We have lost income from development, so we want to live in the development area,” she said. “We can do business [there].”

“We are deeply hurt and frustrated by the authorities,” she continued. “It is one of the most unfair things that the people of the lake have no right to live there while only high officials, companies and institutions have the right to live there.”

Marvia Malik, Pakistan’s first transgender news anchor for Kohenoor TV, has survived an ambush by two gunmen on return to her Lahore home and previously receiving death threats from unknown individuals. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), condemn the attack on Marvia Malik and urge the Pakistani government to expedite investigations into the incident to protect working journalists.

On February 25, a case was registered against unknown assailants for their attack on Marvia Malik, Pakistan's first transgender news anchor. According to a First Information Report launched by the anchor, she was fired upon by two suspects on return to her home from a nearby pharmacy. Malik has since left Lahore to ensure her safety, returning recently for a surgery.

According to her police statement, the television presenter said that she had received threatening phone calls and texts from unknown numbers for her advocacy for the transgender community. She also asserted that her activism was a “major factor” in the attempted killing,

Since 2013, journalists in Pakistan have faced increasing threats, violence and legal repression, with investigations often failing to identify perpetrators. In 2022, 80% of IFJ-documented deaths in Pakistan resulted from gun violence.

In 2018, Malik became Pakistan’s first transgender news anchor at the age of 21, after funding her way through journalism school by working as a make-up artist in the fashion sector. She previously made history by being the first transgender model to walk the runway at the Pakistan Fashion Design Council's annual fashion show.

The PFUJ said: “The PFUJ strongly condemns the armed assault on Marvia Malik and requests the IG Punjab Police arrest and imprison the perpetrators. Violence in this manner is unacceptable, and the offenders should be apprehended and jailed.”

The IFJ said: “Pakistan's government must take appropriate measures to ensure media workers' safety and security, as required by law. Threats of assault, violence and death limit the capacity for journalists to operate without fear. The IFJ condemns the threats and attack against Marvia Malik and urges Pakistani authorities to investigate the incident swiftly and transparently.”

On 26 February, Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong, two activists who spent the previous evening protesting in front of the Supreme Court, declared they would continue staging their hunger strike there.

Their message was delivered by Krisadang Nutcharas, Tantawan and Orawan’s lawyer. The two left Thammasat hospital after being treated for almost a month while conducting a fast to demand bail rights for political prisoners and reform of the judicial system.

Krisadang said that as the two have been on hunger strike for over 30 days, they risk infection by protesting on the street. Despite doctors advising them to remain in a well-equipped hospital, they insist on continuing.

Sunday was Tantawan and Orawan’s third day protesting outside the confines of prison and the hospital. They withdrew their bail requests late last January and shortly after, announced that they would go on a month-long fast.

Their three nights out have not been easy. Krisadang said the two received threatening phone calls, were photographed by plainclothes police, and were disturbed by motorcycle riders wearing outfits of a group that opposed them. Their request for a public toilet vehicle was also refused on the grounds that the demonstration area is within 150 metres of the palace - a no-protest zone.

The lawyer said Tantawan and Orawan would seek approval from the Court, via the head of the Supreme Court, to continue protesting within the Court’s fenced domain. The request was to be filed on Monday morning.

To show solidarity with Tantawan and Orawan, a number of other demonstrators also gathered front of the Court. Among them were Bencha Saengchantra, a lawmaker from Move Forward Party (MFP), and Sopon Surariddhidhamrong, an activist who was recently allowed bail after his no-sleep protest streak, which resulted in lingering damage to his nervous system.

As of 26 February, three political dissidents remain in detention pending trial - Thiranai, Khathathon, and Chaiyaporn (surnames withheld in all cases). Their release was among the immediate demands of Tantawan and Orawan. At the same day, the Court once again stood on refusing bail for Thiranai and Chaiyaporn on 26 Sunday, fearing them escaping the trial.

Their other demands include reform of the judicial system to guarantee human rights and freedom of expression. They also demand that every political party move to guarantee people’s rights, freedoms, and political participation by backing the repeal of the royal defamation and sedition laws.

Members of the Dumagat-Remontado indigenous group whose lands and culture will be threatened by the Kaliwa Dam ended their nine-day walk to the nation’s capital on Thursday evening without having the opportunity to discuss with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. their concerns about the P12.2-billion project.

Indigenous peoples from the provinces of Rizal and Quezon arrived in Manila on Thursday, in hopes of having a dialogue with Marcos to get him to stop the construction of the dam.

But when marchers reached Mendiola, they were met with police who blocked and prevented them from reaching the gates of Malacañang. They instead ended their 150-kilometer journey, which began in Quezon’s General Nakar town, in Paco Catholic Church.

“We are sad that we will return to our homes without the good news that our communities expect: that our concerns will be heard,” indigenous peoples’ leader Conchita Calzado told Philstar.com.

For nine days, hundreds of Dumagat-Remontados and their supporters traversed towns in Quezon, Laguna and Rizal, and the streets of Metro Manila telling people that the Kaliwa Dam will submerge their ancestral domain, threaten their livelihoods and destroy their cultural heritage.

Along the way, the marchers encountered individuals telling them they can no longer do anything and those accusing them of being used by interest groups and communist rebels, which they deny.

“I voluntarily joined this ‘Alay Lakad’ to let the authorities and the public know that residents of Makid-ata have been resisting the dam project since the start,” Silvino Astoveza told Philstar.com.

“I am already old, so why am I still standing against the project? I am doing this for my children, for the next generation,” the 70-year-old Dumagat elder said.

Earlier in the day, the marchers went to the offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, the proponent of the project. The MWSS on Tuesday awarded a “disturbance fee” of P160 million to a faction of Dumagat-Remontados who gave their consent for the dam project. Solution to Manila’s water woes

Kaliwa Dam, which will be funded by a loan from China, was a flagship project of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

The dam is pushed as a solution to Metro Manila’s water problems by supplying some 600 million liters a day to the capital region’s 14 million people. Metro Manila currently relies on Angat Dam in Bulacan for water supply.

Like other indigenous peoples, the Dumagat-Remontados of Sierra Madre are deeply connected with nature.

“If we move to the lowlands, it will be hard to call ourselves indigenous peoples because we’ll live a life that we’re not used to. We don’t want that to happen to our children and the next generation,” Calzado said.

According to groups opposed to Kaliwa Dam, 1,400 Dumagat-Remontado families in Rizal and Quezon will be affected by the project. Government agencies, however, said that only 46 families will be impacted.

Indigenous peoples’ communities and environment groups also stressed that the Kaliwa Dam will destroy Sierra Madre — the longest mountain range in the country that historically serves as a buffer against storms that hit Luzon. Fight continues

The grueling journey to the capital region left them with blisters and aching bodies, and did not end the way they hoped. But the outcome did not crush their will to fight for the preservation of their land and their way of life.

This, after all, was not the first time that they marched to voice out their opposition to a mega-dam project. In 2009, members of Dumagat-Remontado communities walked to the capital for nine days to protest the Laiban Dam project.

The strong opposition of various sectors prompted the government to shelve the project. The victory, however, was short-lived.

Calzado said they were grateful for the support they received from different sectors, and to the police who escorted them.

“Maybe the next thing we’ll do is to call on the general public who will be affected by the Kaliwa Dam to support us in our fight to stop the project,” she said.

According to local sources reports, Taliban have arrested a social and media activist in Takhar province.

Subhanullah Subhani was arrested 20 days ago by the Taliban intelligence services, sources reported on Wednesday.

Subhani is being tortured by Taliban reportedly and is in bad condition.

He has been arrested because of his critical posts on social media groups, sources added.

He was a teacher at Abu-Osman Taliqani School for years and recently obtained his doctorate degree in International Relations department from Khorazmi University in Iran.

He went to Takhar to visit his family a month ago.

Recently, there has been an increase in the arrest of social and media activists by the Taliban.

A journalist has been assaulted in Kazakhstan amid a series of attacks against independent reporters as early parliamentary elections in the oil-rich Central Asian nation draw near.

Daniyar Moldabekov says he was attacked in the morning on February 22 in the corridor of his apartment building by a masked man in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.

Moldabekov told RFE/RL that he was returning home from a coffee shop when a man wearing a medical mask hit him in the jaw with a single blow that dazed him.

"He hit me and shouted 'Hey, don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong!' and quickly left the premises," Moldabekov said, adding that the attack was most likely linked to his latest investigative reports about alleged corruption in the city.

"I will not stop. I will continue working as a journalist. That is for sure. And I will write about anyone I want to," Moldabekov said. He did not say which of his reports could be behind the attack.

The Almaty city police department told RFE/RL that the attack is under investigation.

Attacks against journalists in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic have been on the rise since early January as the country gets ready for early parliamentary elections scheduled for March 19.

On February 20, another Almaty-based journalist and vlogger Vadim Boreiko said that two cars belonging to his cameraman, Roman Yegorov, were burned in an arson attack.

Boreiko and Yegorov said the attack was linked to their professional activities.

In early February, the chief editor of the Ulysmedia.kz news website in Almaty, Samal Ibraeva, received a box from unknown people that contained a hunk of meat and pictures of her children. She described the package as a fresh attempt "to intimidate" her and her staff.

Several other attacks were registered in Kazakhstan last month.

International human rights watchdogs and the embassies of several Western nations have urged Kazakh authorities to investigate the attacks.

Authorities in Vietnam arrested activist Le Minh The for allegedly posting “illegal content” on his Facebook page, in violation of a vaguely worded law routinely used to suppress independent bloggers and journalists.

The was charged with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the State’s interests and legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” under Article 331, state media reported.

International human rights organizations have said Article 331 and other vaguely written and arbitrarily applied laws are tools for the government to silence dissenting voices and restrict freedom of speech.

The, born in 1963, completed a two-year jail term for the same charge in July 2020, the state media report said.

Authorities did not specify what the illegal content on his Facebook account was, but his most recent post was about U.S. President Joe Biden visiting Ukraine on Tuesday.

Other posts on the account were information, images, and videos about Vietnam, a police summons issued to Le Thi Binh – The’s younger sister, to discuss her livestream videos, Vietnam’s VinFast electric cars, and a recent RFA report about an ex-con former fortune-teller who was ordained as a Catholic priest under seemingly shady circumstances.

The indictment for The’s previous violation in 2019 said that he contacted and exchanged information “with inside and outside reactionary forces on social media platforms” in hopes of inciting them to join demonstrations and topple the Vietnamese government.

Mr The - 60 years old - completed his 2-year jail sentence in July 2020, for abuse democratic freedoms.

On 22 Feb 2023, Binh Thuy ward, Can Tho city, again arrested and prosecuted him for the same offence.

State media reported Mr The often published, shared articles with 'illegal content' on his Facebook for others to share and comment.

His last status on his Facebook dated 21 Feb, was the image of US President Biden visiting Ukraine.

Other articles on his Fb included information on Vietnam situation, recent police summon for his sister Ms Le Thi Binh - who completed her 2-year jail sentence for abuse democratic freedoms in Nov 2022, VinFast's electric vehicles, RFA's report on the recent ordination of Catholic priest Ho Huu Hoa - a bribery convict, who was suspected of being ordained by deceptive means.

A family of five, including a 3-year-old boy and an 80-year-old man, were gunned down in their Yangon home by six people in civilian clothes – believed to be pro-junta militia members – as frightened neighbors looked on.

The family is related to Win Soe, a secondary school teacher who is also an activist with the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement, often called the CDM. The Feb. 22 killings shows that activists – and their families – are also being targeted in urban areas, not just the countryside.

A person close to the family, who refused to be named for security reasons, told Radio Free Asia that six people in civilian clothes came to the house on two motorcycles and asked whether household members were related to Win Soe, who has been in hiding since the 2021 military coup d’etat.

“There was no one in the street, as the night was dark and because of the unsafe security situation,” the person said. “I thought they were there to buy some dried fish, as usual. Then they asked them to crouch down and not to look up and asked if they were the family of Win Soe.

“I think they answered that they were. That’s when they shot three times at each of them – two times only in the head,” the person said. “They even shot at the little kid.”

Locals believe the killings in the Yeik Thar ward of Hlegu township was the work of the pro-junta groups, but exactly which group was responsible was unknown. RFA tried to contact the police station in Hlegu township, but the call went unanswered.

Pro-junta supporters have formed militia groups with the help of the military in some townships. They often target and attack supporters of the opposition party and political activists.

More than 250,000 education workers have boycotted their government jobs to protest military rule and have joined the CDM, the shadow National Unity Government said last year.

Of those, junta authorities had killed at least 33 and arrested 218 others as of the end of 2022, according to statistics compiled by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Specifically targeted

A lawyer in Yangon, who refused to be named for security reasons, said the killing of a defenseless child and an elderly man shows the failure of the rule of law in the country.

“You can see that this was specifically targeted,” the lawyer said. “What this shows is that the rule of law in the country has almost completely broken down and the people are not free, not safe, and their freedom and safety are not protected by any organization.”

These kinds of mass killings, which have been happening sporadically since the coup, are leading the country toward failed state status, said Kyaw Win, director of the Burma Human Rights Network.

“The military junta wanted to prove that it can rule the country but it cannot even protect the people from such crimes and the junta itself is also the one who commits these crimes,” he said.

The family members were named as: San Nwet, a 50-year-old woman, Ko Maung and Win Nwe, each 30 years old, and Aung Maung, the 80-year-old man. The 3-year-old boy was not named. They were buried in Hpaung Gyi cemetery on Feb. 25, local sources said.

RFA contacted some of the surviving family members about the incident, but they were still traumatized and wouldn’t talk to a reporter.

Myanmar’s military junta should drop politically motivated charges against the Kachin Baptist leader Reverend Hkalam Samson and immediately release him, Human Rights Watch said today. Rev. Samson’s next hearing, on counterterrorism law charges, which only his lawyer is permitted to attend, is scheduled for February 21, 2023, at a special court inside Myitkyina prison.

“The junta’s politically motivated case against Rev. Hkalam Samson, who is internationally renowned for his humanitarian and community work, shows that no one is safe in Myanmar,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The junta should drop the baseless charges against Rev. Samson and immediately and unconditionally release him.”

On December 5, 2022, junta immigration officials and police arrested Rev. Samson at Mandalay International Airport, preventing him from leaving the country. Junta authorities have not disclosed his whereabouts but are apparently holding him at Myitkyina prison where the hearings are being held in a closed court. His family have not been allowed to see or communicate with him since his arrest.

In December, the junta charged Rev. Samson under section 17 of the Unlawful Associations Act for allegedly meeting with ethnic Kachin armed group leaders in January 2022, and section 505A of the penal code for “incitement” after holding a group prayer with members of the opposition National Unity Government (NUG). The offenses carry prison terms of up to 3 years each. The junta frequently uses vaguely worded and loosely interpreted provisions in its penal code to imprison peaceful activists. The hearings for these two charges concluded on February 14 with no verdict.

On February 14, the junta announced an additional charge against Rev. Samson under section 52A of the counterterrorism law for allegedly meeting with a member of the opposition National Unity Government, punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Rev. Samson, 65, is the former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention and is chairman of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, which facilitated peace talks with the previous National League for Democracy party civilian government.

In 2019, he was among a group of 27 representatives from 17 countries to meet then US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC to highlight the plight of victims of ethnic and religious persecution. Shortly after the trip, the military opened a case against him for his comments at the White House criticizing Myanmar’s persecution of Christian minority groups. The authorities dropped the case after the US State Department expressed concern.

Since the military coup in February 2021, junta security forces have carried out deadly crackdowns against the political opposition to military rule, arbitrarily detained more than 19,000 people, and committed numerous crimes against humanity and war crimes across the country, documented by Human Rights Watch and other groups.

Myanmar’s junta courts are neither independent nor provide basic fair trial rights. Many trials are held in grossly unjust closed-door military tribunals or in “special courts” inside prison facilities where detainees gain access to their lawyer only on the day of their trial.

United Nations member countries, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in particular, Indonesia as chair of ASEAN, and other concerned governments should press the junta to immediately release all those wrongfully detained or imprisoned, including Rev. Samson.

“The prosecution of a high-profile Kachin religious figure like Rev. Samson is a heavy-handed attempt to chill all dissent among ethnic minority leaders,” Pearson said. “ASEAN and other concerned governments should press for the release of Rev. Samson and others wrongfully detained since the February 2021 coup.

NagaWorld union leader Chhim Sithar and eight co-defendants appeared for their first day of trial in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday. Sithar and all her colleagues, except for one, denied the incitement charges against them.

Prosecutors claim that Sithar and her fellow union members are guilty of incitement to disturb security for leading a union strike for more than a year after Phnom Penh authorities declared the labor movement illegal.

Over the course of the three and a half hour hearing, Presiding judge Soeung Chakriya focused on questioning Sithar about the union’s funding, especially from international donors.

Sithar acknowledged she had requested and received funds to support the union’s activities from three international donors: U.S.-based non-profit East West Management Institute (EWMI), feminist NGO JASS and North American union Unite Here.

The three organizations could not be reached for comment.

Sithar said the union received $10,000 from EWMI, $15,000 from JASS and $5,000 from Unite Here as “humanitarian funds” to aid members laid off during Covid-19.

“I made proposals for receiving funds to support the union’s operations and humanitarian funds in helping members during COVID-19, and layoff jobs,” Sithar said.

Deputy prosecutor Seng Heang said that Sithar had led the illegal protest without permission from Phnom Penh municipal authorities and that international funds support the union’s illegal activities.

“I have observed they [workers] have protested [from] morning till evening with no other job [to support their livelihood],” he said.

“They’re volunteers who come [to strike] and they’re willing to do so,” Sithar replied.

She said the strike was peaceful, legal and protected by the Cambodian constitution’s right to freedom expression.

Approximately 1,300 workers initiated the strike on December 18, 2021 to demand the reinstatement of 365 laid off NagaWorld employees following mass lay-offs and lack of full severance pay. More than one year later, 100 employees still protest their lay-offs.

Sithar, president of the Labour Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employee of NagaWorld (LRSU), has stated the union has followed all legal protocol for the strike. The union has said it only launched a strike after all viable efforts at mediation were exhausted.

But Sithar and her eight fellow union members — Chhim Sokhorn, Hay Sopheap, Kleang Soben, Ry Sovandy, Sok Kongkea, Sok Narith, Sun Sreypich, and Touch Sereymeas — were arrested in January last year and placed in pre-trial detention. They were released from Prey Sar prison on bail in March.

Sithar was re-arrested in November last year and detained for allegedly violating bail.

Only one defendant, Kongkea, accepted the charges of incitement in court but later declined to speak with reporters.

Senior Adhoc investigator Yi Soksan said the government, Ministry of Labor and NagaWorld had unfairly dismissed efforts to resolve the strikers demands by instead handing the issue to the system.

“I see that the Royal Government as well as the Ministry of Labor does not seem to care about this labor dispute, they are [Nagaworld staff] laid off unfairly by the company and then the court charges with accusing them of inciting unrest and undermining social security.”

Ministry of Labor spokesperson Heng Sour said in a Telegram message to CamboJA that labor conflicts between former employees of NagaWorld have been settled at the court stage.

“However, he ministry will continue to mediate through the mechanism of the strike and demonstration commission at the request of the conflicting parties,” he said.

NagaWorld could not be reached for comment.

President of Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions Yang Sophorn attended the trial and said she believed LRSU members had legitimate reasons and legal cause to strike but this was ignored by the court.

“Prosecutor questioned tried to place blame, it isn’t about finding justice for Sithar only protecting the interests of the company,” Sophorn told CamboJA News. “[The court] does not mean to find justice for parties involved.”

“I think that the incitement charge was exaggerated because Sithar has tried to explain the root cause of striking and workers’ demands that they have a right to disagree with the employer,” Sophorn added.

Laid off NagaWorld union member Nop Tithboravy and around 100 fellow union members protested outside the court on the day of the hearing.

Tithboravy said she and her colleagues had received numerous threats from the government and struggled to support their families financially after more than one year of striking, refusing to accept the company’s terms.

“I hope the court will bring justice to everyone because we are doing a strike to seek freedom at our workplace and want to go back to work,” she said. “ We don’t have income to support our family, we want to go back to work.”

Tithboravy said the strikers would not end their strike unless the company reinstated all workers and the court dropped all charges against the union members.

The trial is scheduled to resume on February 28.

Outside the court following the hearing, Sithar’s younger brother Chhim Pros said his sister had only followed the law in leading the strike.

“[Sithar] has always helped people from a young age,” he said. “She is just an ordinary girl, she has no ability to destroy the peace in our country.”

The Police fired tear gas on a protest staged by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) in Colombo today.

The protest was staged to demand the Government to hold the Local Government (LG) election next month.

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and several SJB MPs took part in the protest despite the heavy rain.

The Police had earlier warned that since an election has been declared a protest march cannot be staged under election laws.

However the SJB went ahead with the protest march and were obstructed by the Police in Maradana.

The Police later fired water cannons on the protest march and tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Six protesters including four Buddhist monks had been arrested last night over a protest demonstration held near the Kelaniya University at Dalugama, Kelaniya, the Police said.

The Police said they had to fire tear gas and use water cannons to disperse the protestors who blocked the Kandy- Colombo Main Highway near the Kelaniya University.

The arrested Buddhist monks, students of the Kelaniya University, identified as aged between 23 and 26 and were residing in temples in Kahaduwa, Thummodara, Pitabeddara and Mirissa. The male students are identified as residents of Anguruwathota and Kinniya.

Known dissidents prevented from going to public memorials to pay respect to Vietnamese civilians and soldiers killed by the Chinese during the war

RFA Viet 17 Feb https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/news/vietnamnews/commemoration-of-sino-vietnam-war-prevented-by-security-forces-02172023075452.html

The police from two major cities HCMC and Hanoi continued to prevent citizens to pay respect to those killed by the Chinese during the war.

On 17 Feb, local authorities reportedly deployed the police, civilian guards, neighbourhood security personnel... to guard private residences of activists and blocked entry to public memorials of Vietnamese heroes [in the fight against Chinese invaders in history] such as King Ly Thai To memorial in Hanoi, General Tran Hung Dao memorial in Bach Dang wharf, HCMC.

Dissident poet Hoang Hung - a member of the independent writers' league Van Doan Doc Lap - told RFA Viet he and his wife tried to go to Bach Dang wharf on Fri 17 Feb.

... When we reached the gate of our apartment block, two policemen politely stopped us and said 'don't go anywhere today'.

They said 'we received order to stop you two from leaving. To pay respect [to those killed in the war] is the right thing to do, but [our superiors] are afraid some people take advantage of this activity to cause troubles, please understand, don't go anywhere today'.

Mr Hung's two brothers were fallen soldiers, one sacrificed his life in the war against the Chinese [in 1979], the other one in the war against Cambodia's Polpot [1978 - 1989].

Mr Le Than, president of Le Hieu Dang club - members include former Party officials / members turned democracy supporters - told RFA Viet he managed to come to Bach Dang wharf to pay respect at General Tran Hung Dao memorial, as he had left his house the previous day. On 17 Feb, in the morning, he came back and stood hidden at a location close to the memorial, waiting for friends to come as they had planned, but he didn't see anyone known to him who had managed to come close to the memorial.

He said the authorities allowed citizens to light joss sticks to pay respect [at the memorial], but wanted people categorised as "sensitive elements" such as poet Hoang Hung, Prof Mac Van Trang, himself, to stay home.

In Hanoi, on 17 Feb, Mrs Hoang Ha said she was under police guard.

'My house is still under police surveillance. Since last night [16 Feb], [the police] rang me and came to my place to check if I was home. This morning [17 Feb], people had been deployed [to my place] to guard me.'

Later, her daughter rode a motorbike with her sitting behind and managed to leave home without being stopped. She wasn't sure the police didn't find out or they knew but ignored them. However, when she returned home after going to Tay Tuu cemetery (Tu Liem district) to pay respect to fallen soldiers in the war - several thousands were laid to rest there - the police were still guarding her place.

Mr Le Hoang, an active member of No-U Hanoi (an anti-Chinese hegemony soccer club), told RFA Viet, since early morning [17 Feb], the local police already came to his place then left to go to a coffee shop for their morning coffee, after telling him, he 'could go to Tay Tuu cemetery to pay respect, but don't go to [Hoan Kiem] riverside, or we [the police] will stop you and cause you trouble'.

He said when he travelled past Ly Thai To memorial, he saw many police and civilian guards deployed there, ready to take action when the crowd was getting bigger.

Mr Le Than, Mr Le Hoang, Mrs Hoang Ha noted that the police's attitude towards them on this occasion was more easy going compared with previous years. Mr Le Hoang said, in previous years, many activists were detained or arrested on days of commemoration of the wars against the Chinese.

On 17 February 2023, Pervomaisky District Court of the city of Bishkek in Kyrsgyzstan extended the pre-trial detention of women human rights defenders Gulnara Dzhurabayeva, Klara Sooronkulova, Rita Karasartova and Asya Sasykbayeva. The women human rights defenders will now remain in pre-trial detention until 20 April 2023.

Klara Sooronkulova is a woman human rights defender, chairwoman of the NGO “School of Law” and a chairwoman of the Committee to Protect Political Prisoners. Rita Karasartova is a woman human rights defender and an expert in civic governance. She works for the human rights organization and think tank, Institute of Civic Analysis. Gulnara Dzhurabayeva is a woman human rights defender, who has collaborated with “Interbilim” since 2020, and Asya Sasykbayeva is a founder and ex-head of the human rights organization “Interbilim.” Interbilim is an organization that sets out to promote the creation and effective functioning of democratic institutions, ensuring democratic governance, and transparency of the state system through the mechanisms of public examination and the monitoring of the activities of state bodies.

Klara Sooronkulova is a woman human rights defender, chairwoman of the NGO “School of Law” and a chairwoman of the Committee to Protect Political Prisoners. Rita Karasartova is a woman human rights defender and an expert in civic governance. She works for the human rights organization and think tank, Institute of Civic Analysis. Gulnara Dzhurabayeva is a woman human rights defender, who has collaborated with “Interbilim” since 2020, and Asya Sasykbayeva is a founder and ex-head of the human rights organization “Interbilim.” Interbilim is an organization that sets out to promote the creation and effective functioning of democratic institutions, ensuring democratic governance, and transparency of the state system through the mechanisms of public examination and the monitoring of the activities of state bodies.

Klara Sooronkulova is a woman human rights defender, chairwoman of the NGO “School of Law” and a chairwoman of the Committee to Protect Political Prisoners. The woman human rights defender systematically monitors the trials of political prisoners, as well as working on the issues of freedom of speech, judicial reform, and corruption. She has voiced her opposition to laws on social media censorship.

Rita Karasartova is a woman human rights defender and an expert in civic governance. She works for the Institute of Civic Analysis, a human rights organization and a think tank. The organization works to monitor the selection and rotation process within the Kyrgyzstani judiciary system. The woman human rights defender also supports provides independent legal expertese to the local participatory governments. Rita Karasartova is one of the first women human rights defenders, who started publically covering issues within in the law enforcement and judiciary systems in Kyrgyz language.

On 17 February 2023, Pervomaisky District Court of the city of Bishkek extended the pre-trial detention of women human rights defenders Gulnara Dzhurabayeva, Klara Sooronkulova, Rita Karasartova and Asya Sasykbayeva. The women human rights defenders, all of whom were arrested and placed in pre-trial detention on 24 October 2022, will now remain in detention until 20 April 2023. Earlier, on 18 January 2023, the Head of the Investigative task force working on the criminal case against the members of the Committere to Protect Kempir-Abad, informed the defence attorneys that the case was classified. The Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan didn’t provide any justification to the lawyers and defendents as to why this was the case.

On 10 February 2023, colleagues of woman human rights defender Klara Sooronkulova shared that she is facing additional charges for reposting a Facebook post that was part of the campaign “#kamasanarbaarybyzdykamagyla,” translates: “if you put him in jail, put us all in jail.” The campaign was designed to protest the February 2022 arrest of political activist Mirlan Uraimov. In February 2022 when the woman human rights defender re-posted the aforementioned post, the State Committee for National Security of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan initiated a legal expert review of the post. Despite the fact that the results of the expertise stated there was no basis for criminal charges, Klara Sooronkulova faced persecution for the same Facebook post, charged with conspiring to organize mass riots, a criminal offense envisioned by Article 36-278 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. Her colleagues suggest that these charges are related to the wider persecution of the members of the Committee to Protect Kempir-Abad.

On 10 January 2023, Bishkek law enforcement officers detained 30 peaceful protesters, who called for an immediate release of all the activists, journalists, and human rights defenders from the Committee to Protect Kempir-Abad water reserve. The police pushed the protesters away from the building of the Ministry of interior, where the peaceful demonstration commenced. After the protest moved to the Gorky Square, the police officers continued to harras the protesters, forcing them to hide their posters that called for an immediate release of the members of the Committee to Protect Kempir-Abad. Mostly the protesters were friends and family of those in pre-trial detention; all the protesters were released the same day.

On 21 February 2023, woman human rights defender Klara Sooronkulova was admitted to hospital in Bishkek. She was transferred there from the pre-trial detention center #1 of the city of Bishkek. Reportedly, the woman human rights defender requires surgery. Klara Sooronkulova is being accused of conspiring to organize mass riots, a criminal offense as enumerated by Article 36-278 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan for opposing the transfer of the Kempir-Abad water reserve from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan. Klara Sooronkulova has remained in pre-trial detention since 26 October 2022. On 17 February 2023, her pre-trial detention was extended until 20 April 2023.

Following a BBC profile of prominent VOD reporter Mech Dara titled “Cambodia: ‘Every newsroom I worked in gets silenced’”, Dara’s former employer The Phnom Penh Post sought to undermine Dara’s credibility by negatively portraying his mental health..

In a February 17 editorial titled “The Post: “Shut down” and “silenced”?” The Post claimed they had not had the right to reply to BBC and disputed the characterization that Dara had left because the paper had changed ownership to a PR firm with close ties to the government in 2018.

But they also included a section titled “about Dara’s personality” where the unsigned editorial described Dara as a “coward”, “mentally impacted” with “prominent personality flaws.”

Dara declined to comment.

“All this probably seems childish to a global audience and is highly unlikely to negatively impact Dara’s glowing reputation abroad,” wrote J. Daniel Sims, Cambodia director for anti-trafficking NGO International Justice Mission, in a Twitter thread. “However, coordinated attacks like this carry serious weight locally and have the potential to dramatically alter public opinion about him.”

Sims noted that Dara had been one of the VOD reporters leading the publication’s sustained exposé into Cambodia’s human trafficking and scam industry.

“This is the most pernicious and dangerous form of propaganda as it effectively reduces the net political cost of any potential violence against him [Dara],” Sims added. “In a context like this one, the risks of such a horrifying outcome are anything but theoretical.”

Chinese police have detained at least five activists who supported recent mass protests in two major cities against the slashing of retirees’ medical insurance benefits earlier this month, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Among those detained was veteran rights activist Zhang Hai, who was picked up by authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen, a resident of Wuhan who gave only the surname Zhang said.

"One of five people detained in connection with the silver protests was Zhang Hai – I heard he was detained in Shenzhen," the woman said. "There was also a 23-year-old man who was detained for singing The Internationale with some older people."

The detentions come after thousands of people took to the streets of two Chinese cities – Wuhan and Dalian – on Feb. 15 in a second mass protest over major cuts to their medical benefits.

Protesters were shown in social media video clips singing the communist anthem "The Internationale" as well as China's national anthem.

"There was also a taxi driver called Shu Li, who was detained around Feb. 20," Zhang said. "He was detained for going to support [the protests]."

Shu was handed a 10-day administrative jail sentence, which can be handed out for up to 15 days to people the police see as troublemakers. However, many detainees aren't released but held under criminal charges when the administrative sentence is complete.

Zhang said Wuhan-based rights activist A Meng was detained in Shanghai and brought back to Wuhan after he supported the protests, while fellow activist Bai Yun had also been detained.

She said the five she named were only the cases she knew about.

"There are probably many more than that, who have been counted," Zhang said.

Clamping down

Zhang Hai's arrest came after he reposted video clips of the protests in Wuhan, along with media reports and comments to his Twitter account.

Zhang Hai, who lives in Shenzhen, became an outspoken critic of the ruling Chinese Communist Party since the pandemic prompted a city-wide lockdown in Wuhan and killed his father.

In June 2022, the authorities placed restrictions on his bank cards, with many transactions blocked, he told Radio Free Asia at the time.

Zhang was recently asked to submit additional proof of ID in recent transactions via his account at the Bank of China Nantou branch in the southern city of Shenzhen, where he currently lives.

Similar restrictions have been placed on several of his bank cards since the beginning of this year, he told RFA, while online banking transactions often fail to go through, he said.

"He didn't only speak out for his father, but also stood up for the rights of other bereaved families," Zhang said. "He became a voice for all vulnerable groups."

Silver protests

Another Wuhan resident who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said police in her local area have also been investigating people who took part in the so-called silver protests.

"There was one person who gave interviews to a lot of reporters in Wuhan over the past three years," she said. "They started following him on Feb. 15, and he was snatched away by some [identified] people on Feb. 16."

"He was locked up in the police station for several hours – there is a state of red terror here in Wuhan right now," she said.

The silver protests began on Feb. 8 outside the municipal government in Wuhan, with retirees warning more action would follow in the absence of a response from officials.

An official account on social media described protesters on Feb. 16 as having been "bewitched by rumors" and warned people not to believe "rumors" that medical insurance reforms will leave pensioners worse off.

The protests came after warnings from the central government in Beijing that it won’t be bailing out cash-strapped local governments, whose coffers have been drained by three years of President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy, which ended in December.

People in China frequently challenge those in power, despite nationwide measures aimed at nipping popular protest in the bud, the U.S.-based think tank Freedom House reported in November 2022.

Despite pervasive surveillance, a "grid" system of law enforcement at the neighborhood level and targeted "stability maintenance" system aimed at controlling critics of the government before they take action, the group identified hundreds of incidents of public protest between June and September 2022 alone.

A 14-year-old girl became the youngest person to be charged with royal defamation after she received a police summons following a complaint filed against her by a royalist activist.

Thanalop (last name withheld), 14, was summoned by Samranrat Police Station to report on 15 February after she was accused of royal defamation by royalist activist Anon Klinkaew, head of the ultra-royalist group People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy.

The summons does not say why Thanalop is charged, but states that the cause of the complaint was an incident that occurred around the Giant Swing in Bangkok’s old town on 13 October 2022.

Thanalop, who calls herself “Comrade Sleepless” (สหายนอนน้อย), said that she initially received a summons dated 23 January, but certain details in it were wrong, so the family sent it back to the police for correction. She then received another summons last Tuesday (7 February).

The 14-year-old said that she is not concerned about being charged, but is more worried about her education, so she will ask the police to postpone her meeting. She said that her family is worried, but is going to let her decide what to do for herself.

She also said that she was harassed by police officers three times before she received an official summons. On 20 October 2022, an officer visited her house and told her family that she should be taken to see a psychiatrist.

Another officer came to visit the family again on 7 November 2022. Thanalop said that the officer spoke to her father, telling him that charges would be pressed against her. She also said that the officer spoke badly to her father, telling him that it would be better to commit suicide than to have a child like her.

On the same day, an officer tried to visit her at school, but Thanalop said the school refused to let them see her.

According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), at least 18 people under the age of 18 have been charged with royal defamation since 2020.

Thanalop said that, for her, the royal defamation law is problematic in that it carries a disproportionately severe penalty, while anyone can file a complaint against anyone else. She sees it as a law to silence people and violate people’s freedom.

She calls on political parties to back the repeal of the royal defamation law rather than proposing amendments to it. She said she is concerned that, if the law is not repealed, it can later be amended again and the penalty may become more severe, and said that it would be most benefit to the people to repeal it.

“Amending [the royal defamation law] is not the best for the people, but repealing it would be best for the people. If any political party gets elected to parliament, I want the parties to be clear about repealing Section 112,” she said.

The 14-year-old also said that she would like to back the call for the release of political prisoners and the demands for judicial reform issued by monarchy reform activists Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong and the activist group Thaluwang. She said that there is not enough attention paid to the issue after members of parliament spoke about it during a parliamentary debate and wanted to call attention to it.

Thousands of people took to the streets of two Chinese cities – Wuhan and Dalian – on Wednesday in an ongoing protest over major cuts to their medical benefits, according to local residents and video footage posted to social media.

Video clips uploaded to social media showed crowds singing the communist anthem "The Internationale" under a traffic overpass in Zhongshan Park and along Jiefang Avenue in the central city of Wuhan.

Similar scenes unfolded in the People’s Square in the northeastern port city of Dalian, according to the Twitter account "Mr. Li is not your teacher" using the handle @whyyoutouzhele.

Other clips showed a crowd of older people facing off with ranks of uniformed police officers three or four deep who linked arms and started shoving the crowd slowly to make it pull back.

In one clip, an elderly man is seen lying on the ground with his head and legs propped up while people boo and shout at the police.

The protests were a continuation of an earlier rally outside municipal government headquarters in Wuhan on Feb. 8 against the slashing of medical payouts under an insurance scheme offered to retired employees of state-owned enterprises.

Zero-COVID policy drains coffers

They come after warnings from the central government in Beijing that it won’t be bailing out cash-strapped local governments, whose coffers have been drained by three years of President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy, which ended in December.

Wuhan-based rights activist Zhang Hai said the demonstration there had gone ahead on Wednesday after a smaller protest outside government headquarters last week had failed to elicit a response from officials, and had taken place despite tight security measures.

"The government has been warning people not to go to Zhongshan Park or Shouyi Road since yesterday evening," Zhang told Radio Free Asia. "A lot of residential communities were under lockdown this morning, but a lot of people still turned out nonetheless."

"They are planning to march over by the Yangtze River Bridge after this rally," he said.

Zhang said police had responded by shutting down subway stations and cell phone masts serving the area.

"At the same time [as shutting subway stations], they have shut off the mobile phone signal, and they are making the crowd disperse," he said. "People at the scene say they have detained quite a few people already."

A person shooting footage of the crowd at the park gate said police were trying to get everyone to go inside Zhongshan Park.

"There were policemen everywhere and plainclothes [state security police] standing at the gate of the park," the person comments.

Detained at home

Wuhan resident Zhang Qiang said many other people had been detained in their homes to prevent them from protesting in the first place.

"A lot of people have been confined to their homes by stability maintenance," Zhang Qiang said. "I have been roped in too."

"The police are out in force around Zhongshan Park and Jiefang Avenue," he said.

A protester who gave only the surname Zhou said the cuts to medical benefits affect everyone, not just retired workers.

"People who are paying out 400 yuan a month are getting nothing back from the government now," he said. "So they can't buy their medication."

"They used to get more than 100 yuan a month [as a cash benefit] that they could use to buy medicines [over the counter], but now they're insisting we go to a hospital clinic -- they won't give us money to buy them from the pharmacy any more," Zhou said.

Wuhan businessman Ma Yongnian said he was in a similar situation.

"There are tens of thousands of people blocking the streets," Ma said, adding that similar changes were rolled out in the southern city of Guangzhou recently, but were withdrawn following major public opposition.

"Guangzhou withdrew this policy, but Wuhan is insisting on it," Ma said.

He said hospital visits require a higher co-pay than pharmacies, putting medicines beyond the reach of many retirees.

"I'm affected by this too ... I can only claim 50% of fees in the top three hospitals, and there's an excess of 700 yuan before reimbursements even start," Ma said.

‘Rise up! Rise up!’

Meanwhile, a person filming outside municipal government headquarters in Dalian said the large crowd in People's Square was there to "present their demands" to the authorities.

"They're all older men and women," the person comments on the video clip posted to Twitter by user @Pancho66196600, adding "There are quite a few police here too," as the crowd starts singing the “March of the Volunteers,” China's national anthem.

"Rise up! Rise up!" they sing, before the anthem fades on the winter air, and "The Internationale" takes its place, as some protesters heckle officials making their way into the government offices through the front gates.

According to screenshots and photos posted by "Mr. Li" on Twitter, the protests went ahead in Wuhan despite reports that the authorities had tried to attract older people with a slew of community events for "grandparents," and unconfirmed reports that universities had been closed for just one day on Feb. 15.

Public transportation companies had also issued warnings to employees of a "major demonstration," according to a screenshot posted by the account.

In Dalian, protesters on People's Square also chanted the name of the city's mayor, the account said.

People in China frequently challenge those in power, despite nationwide measures aimed at nipping popular protest in the bud, the U.S.-based think tank Freedom House reported in November 2022.

Despite pervasive surveillance, a "grid" system of law enforcement at the neighborhood level and targeted "stability maintenance" system aimed at controlling critics of the government before they take action, the group identified hundreds of incidents of public protest between June and September 2022 alone.

A 14-year-old girl became the youngest person to be charged with royal defamation after she received a police summons following a complaint filed against her by a royalist activist.

Thanalop (last name withheld), 14, was summoned by Samranrat Police Station to report on 15 February after she was accused of royal defamation by royalist activist Anon Klinkaew, head of the ultra-royalist People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy.

The summons does not say why Thanalop is charged, but states that the cause of the complaint was an incident that occurred around the Giant Swing in Bangkok’s old town on 13 October 2022.

Thanalop, who calls herself “Comrade Sleepless” (สหายนอนน้อย), said that she initially received a summons dated 23 January, but certain details in it were wrong, so the family sent it back to the police for correction. She then received another summons last Tuesday (7 February).

The 14-year-old said that she is not concerned about being charged, but is more worried about her education, so she will ask the police to postpone her meeting. She said that her family is worried, but is going to let her decide what to do for herself.

She also said that she was harassed by police officers three times before she received an official summons. On 20 October 2022, an officer visited her house and told her family that she should be taken to see a psychiatrist.

Another officer came to visit the family again on 7 November 2022. Thanalop said that the officer spoke to her father, telling him that charges would be pressed against her. She also said that the officer spoke badly to her father, telling him that it would be better to commit suicide than to have a child like her.

On the same day, an officer tried to visit her at school, but Thanalop said the school refused to let them see her.

According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), at least 18 people under the age of 18 have been charged with royal defamation since 2020.

Thanalop said that, for her, the royal defamation law is problematic in that it carries a disproportionately severe penalty, while anyone can file a complaint against anyone else. She sees it as a law to silence people and violate people’s freedom.

She calls on political parties to back the repeal of the royal defamation law rather than proposing amendments to it. She said she is concerned that, if the law is not repealed, it can later be amended again and the penalty may become more severe, and said that it would be most benefit to the people to repeal it.

“Amending [the royal defamation law] is not the best for the people, but repealing it would be best for the people. If any political party gets elected to parliament, I want the parties to be clear about repealing Section 112,” she said.

The 14-year-old also said that she would like to back the call for the release of political prisoners and the demands for judicial reform issued by monarchy reform activists Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong and the activist group Thaluwang. She said that there is not enough attention paid to the issue after members of parliament spoke about it during a parliamentary debate and wanted to call attention to it.

Background

Dang Nhu Quynh is a well-known Facebooker who works and lives in Hanoi. Prior to arrest, he was running a Facebook account with more than 317,000 followers which focuses on social, political and economic issues in Vietnam. History of Activism

According to State media, in 2020, Dang Nhu Quynh was summoned by the Hanoi police for his Facebook posts discussing Covid issues in Vietnam.

Details of Imprisonment

On April 12, 2022, Dang Nhu Quynh was arrested for allegedly posting “unverified information" on his Facebook account. He was charged under Article 331 of the 2015 Criminal Code for “abusing democratic freedoms."

According To An Xo, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security, Quynh was accused of using social media to post articles and “unverified information" about certain individuals and businesses in finance, the stock market, and real estate. Quynh's actions “negatively affected the state’s finance and stock market,” Xo said.

Prior to arrest, Dang Nhu Quynh had recently posted several articles about the cases of finance mogul Trinh Van Quyet, chairman of FLC Group who had been arrested for stock market manipulation, and Do Anh Dung, the chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Minh Group who was arrested for bond-issuance fraud. In the posts, Quynh predicted that the government would continue prosecuting persons and company leaders that are guilty of similar crimes.

October 2022:

On October 27, a Hanoi court sentenced Dang Nhu Quynh, a 42-year-old Facebooker with over 300,000 followers, to two years in prison for “abusing democratic freedoms.” Prosecutors said that on April 2 Quynh posted information about Do Anh Dung, chairman of the joint stock company Tan Hoang Minh, claiming that Dung was being criminally investigated. However, it was not until April 5 that Dung’s investigation was revealed by police. The state further alleged that Quynh later posted unsubstantiated news about an investigation against Nguyen Van Tuan, chairman of joint stock companies Gelex and Viglacera, causing the share prices for these companies to drop precipitously, and leading to a loss in capitalization of 11,000 billion dong (US $500 million). Quynh was ultimately not charged for his posts about Do Anh Dung since the latter was under investigation anyway. However, according to prosecutors, Quynh allegedly admitted in court that his posts on Nguyen Van Tuan were just speculation on his part and done only to gain likes.

43-year-old Mr Quynh, owner of a Fb account with over 300,000 followers, had his 2-year jail sentence upheld on 14 Feb , by Hanoi court.

A human rights activist will be charged tomorrow over a social media post on the mistreatment of refugees at detention centres, barely a year after she had the same charge dismissed by the High Court.

Heidy Quah said she would be charged at the cyber crimes court tomorrow morning.

In a Facebook post, Quah said she would be charged for allegedly using the internet with the intention to offend and annoy.

“This police report was filed against me by our government of Malaysia.”

The last time Quah was charged, she was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal as the courts found the charges to be defective.

“But here I am, yet again. Being charged again.”

Quah then took a swipe at the current administration, saying that despite the change in the administration, some practices remained, specifically human rights defenders were still being prosecuted “for speaking the truth”.

She said while she was left shaken, she was determined to keep speaking up.

Quah also called on the government to reform Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA), which she is being charged under, and pass a strong Whistleblowers Act.

“It’s time we investigate allegations, not whistleblowers.”

In 2021, Quah was slapped with a charge under Section 233(1)(a) of the CMA, with the prosecution contending that she uploaded the post on June 5, 2020, with the intention to insult others.

Hours after revealing that she would be charged over a social media post on the mistreatment of refugees at detention centres, human rights activist Heidy Quah said she had been informed that she would not be hauled to court after all.

Quah told FMT that she had just received a call from the investigating officer informing her that there was no longer a need for her to go to the cyber crimes court to face charges for allegedly using the internet with the intention to offend and annoy.

“I am not sure what caused the change, public pressure, our letters of appeal, or the different leaders within the government who have worked hard for a New Malaysia and want to do things right.

“I hope that this matter ends once and for all, and I will no longer be charged.”

She then thanked those who stood in solidarity with her.

Earlier this evening Quah revealed that she would be charged under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA).

The Kuala Lumpur High Court had last year granted her a discharge not amounting to an acquittal as they found the charges to be defective.

In 2021, Quah was slapped with one charge under Section 233(1)(a) of the CMA, with the prosecution contending that she uploaded the post on June 5, 2020, with the intention to insult others.

The Taliban must allow Tamadon TV to operate freely and independently and end its campaign of harassment and violence against journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, February 14, about 10 armed Taliban members raided the headquarters of the privately owned broadcaster in Kabul, beat several staff members, and held them for 30 minutes, according to news reports and a journalist familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

That journalist said they did not know what led to the raid. Tamadon TV is predominantly owned and operated by members of the Hazara ethnic minority, and covers political and current affairs as well as Shiite religious programming. Hazara people have faced persecution and escalated violence since the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.

“The Taliban’s raid of Tamadon TV and attacks on its employees show the group’s failure to abide by its professed commitment to freedom of expression in Afghanistan,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Access to information in Afghanistan is critical. The Taliban must stop harassing journalists and stifling the work of the free press.”

While entering the broadcaster’s premises, Taliban members beat a security guard, two journalists, and two media workers, the journalist who spoke to CPJ said.

The Taliban members then pointed guns the station’s staff members, confiscated their mobile phones, and transferred them to a meeting room, where they were held for 30 minutes while Taliban members verbally harassed them, referring to one as an “infidel Hazara journalist,” according to that journalist.

Taliban members roamed around the headquarters, but it was not clear if they conducted any additional searches, and then confiscated two of the broadcaster’s vehicles when they left the scene.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but did not receive any response.

In August 2022, CPJ published a special report about the media crisis in Afghanistan, showing a rapid deterioration in press freedom since the Taliban retook control of the country, marked by censorship, arrests, assaults, and restrictions on women journalists.

One of Myanmar’s leading Protestant activists has been charged under the country’s Counter Terrorism Law.

Family members said Dr. Hkalam Samson was charged under Section 52 (a) – which covers incitement to terrorism – by a court in Kachin State’s Myitkyina Prison on Tuesday.

His lawyer, Dong Nang, told RFA the court said it was charging him under terrorism laws because he had met officials of Myanmar’s National Unity Government, which was overthrown by the military in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup.

“They filed a new case for meeting with and praying for the NUG president, Minister of Natural Resources Dr. Tu Hkawng and Minister of Education Ja Htoi Pan in Lai Zar,” he said, referring to an area of Kachin controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization and its military wing the Kachin Independence Army.

Dr. Hkalam, 65, is a former president of the Kachin Baptist Convention and president of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly.

He had already been charged with criminal defamation and unlawful association with an illegal group, according to sources close to the secret court at Myitkyina Prison.

His lawyer told RFA that, with the addition of the new “terrorism” charge, Dr. Hkalam faces a maximum prison sentence of 13 years

Hkalam Samson was arrested at Mandalay International Airport on Dec. 4 on his way to medical treatment in Bangkok, Thailand, because his name was on a no-fly list. He was interrogated overnight at Central Regional Military Command headquarters.

The following day, authorities flew him back to Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, where he was again arrested.

Last month, his wife told RFA Dr. Hkalam was suffering from pneumonia and high blood pressure.

Zhon Nyoir, said she was worried about her husband's health because he had not been allowed to see his family since his arrest, and the family was not permitted to send him medicine or food.

At the time of his arrest Hkalam Samson still worked as an advisor for the Kachin Baptist Convention, which has about 400,000 members, most of whom are ethnic Kachin.

He was also president of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, a group of local religious and political leaders who help foster communication between the Kachin Independence Organization, an ethnic Kachin political group, and the local community.

In October last year, he helped organize hospital treatment and funerals for people injured and killed in a junta airstrike on an annual concert hosted by the Kachin Independence Organization. The group's armed wing has been actively fighting against junta troops since the coup as well as training anti-regime People’s Defense Forces.

More than 60 people died during the attack, Kachin residents said at the time.

In 2017, Dr. Hkalam visited the White House and thanked then-president Donald Trump for imposing travel bans on senior Myanmar military commanders involved in a violent crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that year. He also appealed to Trump to take action against religious persecution in Myanmar and to support the country’s transition to genuine democracy.

He was sued by Major Thu Aung Zaw of the junta’s Northern Regional Military Command, based in Kachin state, for speaking about Myanmar’s religious and human rights situation during the meeting but the case was later dropped.

Hkalam Samson’s next trial is scheduled for Feb. 21. Family members told RFA they had heard the junta is preparing to level further charges against him.

Reporter to https://laikakhabar.com/ Bal Bahadur Thapa was attacked while reporting in Surkhet on February 13. Surkhet lies in Karnali Province of Nepal.

Reporter Thapa was attacked while reporting on a protest in Birendranagar, Surkhet. Local people had staged a protest following road accident, causing a death of a woman. After her death, relatives of deceased blocked the road section since February 12 demanding compensation and punishment to the driver.

During the protest, clash broke among the relatives and transport entrepreneurs’ staffs. Reporter Thapa was recording video of the victims being attacked by the staffs. Meanwhile, the staffs threatened Thapa to stop recording the video and delete it. As Thapa refused to stop reporting, they pounded him with iron rod, bottle and shovel.

Thapa has received injuries on his head and back. The incident took place in front of police persons.

Freedom Forum condemns the incident. Attack upon a working journalist is a blatant violation of press freedom and journalists' right to free reporting. Hence, FF strongly urges the concerned authority to investigate upon the case and ensure safety of the journalists covering protest.

A court in Yangon’s Botahtaung Township sentenced Lin Htet Naing, a former leader of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), to an additional five years in prison on Monday, according to his wife.

The former student leader, who is better known as James in the activist community, received the sentence under Section 52b of Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law, his wife, fellow activist Phyo Phyo Aung, told Myanmar Now.

“By adding more years to his sentence, the military council is not only systematically and politically oppressing a democratic activist, but also fabricating fake cases to charge him with terrorism,” she said.

She added that she still didn’t know if he would have to do hard labour or if time served would be deducted from his sentence.

Lin Htet Naing was arrested in Botahtaung Township in June of last year and later charged with incitement under Section 505a of the Penal Code.

On December 7, a prison court based in Yangon’s Kyauktada Township found him guilty of that charge and sentenced him to three years in prison.

The former ABFSU vice president was first imprisoned in 2008 after being arrested for his involvement in the monk-led Saffron Revolution of the previous year.

Following his release in 2011, he resumed his political activities, and was later handed six-month sentences in 2015 and 20202, with the latter ending just days before the military coup in February 2021.

On October 19 of last year, his mother, Kyi Kyi Myint, was among eight people killed when an explosive went off inside a reception area in Insein Prison, where Lin Htet Naing was being held.

Kyi Kyi Myint, who was known to many of her son’s activist friends as “Amay Kyi,” or Mother Kyi, was bringing him food at the time of the incident.

According to the latest figures compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a total of 15,117 people are currently being detained by Myanmar’s military, of whom 3,713 have been sentenced.

The government this morning revoked the media operating licence of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM), parent of the bilingual outlet Voice of Democracy (VOD), one of Cambodia’s few remaining independent media outlets.

The Ministry of Information revoked the licence after Prime Minister Hun Sen and his son, army commander Hun Manet, took issue with a 9 February VOD article that featured reactions from various people. This included a comment from government spokesperson Phay Siphan regarding the claim that Hun Manet had signed an agreement providing financial assistance to Türkiye. Both Manet and the prime minister later took to social media to deny that Manet had signed the document.

On 11 February, Hun Sen wrote on his Facebook page that VOD had 72 hours to apologise to the government and Hun Manet, or else he would direct the Ministry of Information to revoke VOD’s media operating licence. He later shortened this arbitrary deadline to expire on 10am on 13 February. Article 10 of the Press Law specifies the right of public figures who believe media have published false allegations with malicious intent to demand a retraction and sue in court to demand retractions, compensation, or both.

Following a meeting with Ministry of Information officials on 12 February, CCIM issued a letter addressed to Hun Sen expressing VOD’s “regret” and requesting “forgiveness [for] any unintentional wrongdoing”. VOD Khmer also published an article that evening outlining Hun Sen and Hun Manet’s denials.

Hun Sen rejected the apology via a Facebook post, stating that he was unable to accept the words “regret” and “forgiveness” in place of the word “apologise”, and ordered the Ministry of Information to revoke VOD’s licence. CCIM issued an additional letter of apology. Hun Sen again rejected the apology on Facebook in the early morning of 13 February. Several internet service providers had blocked access to VOD’s websites as of this morning.

VOD has become one of the most important independent media outlets in the country in recent years, publishing in Khmer and English. VOD journalists have written more than 60 stories over more than a year documenting widespread slave compounds where trafficked people are forced to conduct cyberscams. In August last year, five VOD journalists were detained and one was struck by the prime minister’s bodyguard unit while reporting on the recently deforested Phnom Tamao forest. The outlet also published dozens of stories from across the country documenting the repressive political space in the lead-up to the 2022 Commune Elections.

The shutdown of an independent media outlet is similar to the crackdown on journalists ahead of the last national election in 2018. In late 2017, the Cambodia Daily was shuttered over an arbitrary tax bill and in 2018 the Phnom Penh Post was sold to a firm with links to the government while facing pressure following a similar arbitrary tax bill. The government also shuttered dozens of radio frequencies carrying broadcasts of Radio Free Asia (RFA), Voice of America (VOA) and VOD.

Following the government-ordered shutdown of VOD last week, the outlet has been the subject of vulgar social media memes and its reporters continue to face personal attacks online and in government-aligned media.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has stated the VOD report which led him to revoke the outlet’s license last week was “fake news” and a political attack on the government.

“This is not the first time, and this time is too serious,” Hun Sen said Monday. “They intentionally attack both father [him] and son [Hun Manet] and destroy the government, you are trying to destroy me, it should be enough.”

Amidst the framing of VOD as fake news, Adhoc spokesperson Soeng Senkaruna said that there are few remaining media in Cambodia willing to report on negative issues. Freedom of press had been on the decline since the dissolution of the CNRP in 2017, he added.

“Now we see that the situation has gone backwards, which is worrying,” he said. “We do not want to see images of restrictions on the press and civil society in a democratic society, and this event has made journalists fearful of fulfilling their role to serve society and the people.”

PM defends sexual harassment of journalist

On Monday, Hun Sen rebuked a group of more than 40 civil society organizations after they released a joint-statement last week condemning the sexual harassment of a female VOD reporter on social media.

The letter was addressed to the Minister of Information, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, and the Minister of Post and Telecommunications, urging the ministries to take action against social media personality Pheng Vannak for verbally attacking a female reporter.

The letter stated that Pheng Vannak, who runs a self-titled social media news page, wielded misogynistic language against a female VOD reporter and demanded he apologize and attend gender sensitivity training. But the Prime Minister appeared to downplay Vannak’s comments.

“These NGOs were established only to oppose the government and not to do anything to protect women’s equality,” Hun Sen said during a February 20 speech to Phnom Penh university students. “When my sister [sister-in-law] died, she was insulted, my wife was insulted, my family was insulted, but you [NGOs] did not come out to defend, so next time don’t talk about double standards with me.”

Regarding the insults, Hun Sen was likely referring to statements made by exiled opposition figure Sam Rainsy, who mocked the death of the Prime Minister’s sister-in-law in early February.

“I am waiting to see if all civil society organizations are taking action to protect my family as well,” Hun Sen said, warning he could order investigations into the NGOs’ financing.

“If it is necessary to audit [the NGOs] to find out where the money came from, we have the right to do so and the Ministry of Interior or the Anti-Corruption Unit could investigate,” he added.

While no other ministry responded directly to the civil society statement as of Monday, the Ministry of Women’s affairs released a statement Monday which urged civil society organizations to remain neutral and not pursue political interests.

“We call on civil society organizations to adhere to professional ethics and display impartiality in the conduct of their work, avoiding the application of biased and double standards,” the statement read.

Chim Channeang, secretary general of the Cambodian NGO Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, signed the statement. She said the aims of the organizations signing the statement were not political.

“The role of civil society organizations is that we work in line with the government, our job is to work together as a government partner, and our role is to monitor the government,” she said. “For political parties, we do not interfere.”

Channeang said civil society organizations often receive money from abroad because Cambodia is a developing country with limited resources. She noted some government ministries also receive funding from foreign institutions.

“It does not mean…doing daily activities to serve foreign interests or doing whatever the foreigner wants, we bring that money just to contribute to the government and it helps develop the country and benefit the poor or minority groups in our community,” she said.

She said that condemning the harassment of the female VOD journalist was not a political act but was intended to promote greater protection of women.

“We are not taking sides, but the fact is that the girl who reported the news was insulted, and it is such a serious threat to make,” Channeang said. “It destroys her reputation, especially it affects her mental health.”

Backlash against VOD reporters

While international media, foreign embassies and numerous Cambodians mourned and condemned the closure of VOD in a series of articles, editorials and social media posts, VOD staff came under attack on social media and in government-aligned news outlets.

The day VOD’s license was revoked on February ,13 a series of Twitter users — many appearing to be fake accounts — began posting identical cartoons and messages applauding VOD’s closure with the hashtag #VODshithead.

The Twitter accounts shared cartoons which portrayed VOD as a tool of foreign agents such as “foreign embassies” and “NGO[s]”.

In one cartoon branded with the vulgar hashtag, a figure resembling the American icon Uncle Sam, in a tophat with the VOD logo, has a thought bubble attached reading “You must adhere to the strategies I have established” while painting Cambodia with paint labeled “human right” and “democracy.”

A group of white journalists stands watching and one says “Each of us must follow our boss’s instructions regarding fake reports. Our boss gives us money and protects us.”

Few of the comments received more than 100 views, according to Twitter.

The attacks on VOD reporters extended to government-aligned media.

A young woman, Parisa Mubariz, and her brother were detained and beaten by Taliban forces in Takhar province.

Taliban forces went to the Mubariz family home in Taleqan city around 8:00am on Sunday as the family were having breakfast, a source close to the family said.

“Her brother went to see who it was. As soon as he opened the gate, they first arrested him. Then two Taliban policewomen entered the house without permission and took Parisa away with them. They did not even give her a chance to wear her hijab,” the source said.

Parisa’s mother ran to get her daughter a hijab and begged the Taliban forces not to take her children. One of the male Talibs entered the house and took Parisa’s phone, the source said.

“The Taliban just came and took Parisa and her 19-year-old brother with them without explaining the reason,” the source added.

The pair were released about seven hours later through the mediation of their elders and relatives.

The source said that after the arrest, their mother fainted and she was transferred to Mellat Hospital in the center of Taleqan city. She has since returned home. Parisa’s father, 68, works in Iran to provide an income for his family.

A family member said Parisa has been severely beaten for refusing to provide the password to unlock her phone and allow the Taliban to look through it. They added that the Taliban did not have any document indicating Parisa had participated in protests.

In a picture seen by Rukhshana Media of Parisa after her release, her head is covered with a white cloth and a cannula needle is attached to her left hand.

The Taliban made Parisa promise to refrain from any protests against them and any women’s activities that lead to opposition to their regime, according to the source.

One of Parisa’s colleagues also said that the Taliban released Parisa from prison on the condition that she does not carry out protest activities against the Taliban.

In response to the arrests, a number of women have uploaded videos of themselves protesting from home demanding the release of these women and further demanding the restoration of women’s rights in Afghanistan.

The Taliban fighters arrested and imprisoned Parisa Mobarez, a female protester in the northern province of Takhar, along with her brother. They were arrested from their home.

Through the intercession of local elders, Mrs. Mobarez and her brother were released after spending 24 hours in the Taliban prison.

Various sources have confirmed to Nimrokh that the Taliban have taken a commitment from Mobarez’s father that his daughter would have to no longer protest against them.

After release, Mobarez told media that she and her brother were severely beaten and tortured in prison by the Taliban men. The Taliban have also seized her cell phone and are pressuring her to let them access its contents.

An Afghan women’s rights activist has been detained in Kabul without any information on her whereabouts from Taliban authorities, as another woman was detained and beaten in northern Takhar province for calling for women’s rights.

Nargis Sadat was arrested while travelling in Pul-e-Surkh area of west Kabul on Sunday afternoon. Mrs. Sadat’s relatives told Rukhshana Media that she was not in good health and she had gone to the hospital for treatment. While on her way from the hospital to her sister’s house, she was detained at a checkpoint by Taliban forces in Kabul city’s district three.

The Taliban took Mrs. Sadat’s phone and went through it, then detained her on the grounds that it contained videos and photos of women protesting. Her family have not been allowed any information of her whereabouts.

“After her husband heard the news of her arrest, he went to the local police district. Narges’ phone was in the hands of the police chief there and he told Narges’ husband that she was a leader of the women’s protests so the police called the intelligence department to come and investigate her,” a source close to the family said.

Her husband was not even allowed to see her and make sure of her health condition, a family member told Rukhshana Media, adding that the Sadat’s have a 10-year-old son who was not coping well mentally.

Narges Sadat, is a leading member of the Afghan Powerful Women Movement.

Authorities in Xinjiang's regional capital Urumqi have detained an outspoken ethnic Kazakh musician, weeks after a Kazakhstan-based rights group warned that she was at risk of being hauled off to a psychiatric facility.

State security police in Urumqi's Shayibak district took Zhanargul Zhumatai, 47, away from her mother's house on Feb. 10, after she received a request for a "media interview" from someone claiming to be an Associated Press correspondent, according to the Kazahstan-based rights group Atajurt.

"State security police from the Shayibak branch of the Urumqi police department detained Zhanargul at 5.40 p.m. on Feb. 10," Atajurt spokesperson Nurbek told Radio Free Asia. "She is gone."

While Zhanargul's whereabouts are currently unclear, critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party have repeatedly reported being held in psychiatric facilities despite having no diagnosis of mental illness.

A few days before she was detained, Zhanargul made a recording of a phone call with local state security police, who wanted to arrange a time to visit her at home.

"I don't want you people in my home," she says on the recording. "I need to tell you straight, Officer Xu, I don't want anyone from the residential office, particularly not the neighborhood committee or the political and legal affairs commission, in my home either."

"I don't want any of this. All I want is to be left in peace," she says.

But the police paid no heed to her request.

"The Xinjiang police called to threaten her at around 5.00 p.m. Urumqi time on Feb. 10, then they sent two ethnic Kazakh [officers] round," Atajurt founder Serikzhan Bilash said.

"They went to her mother's house and took Zhanargul Zhumatai away by force," he said.

Calls to the phone number given out by the purported AP journalist who contacted her on Feb. 8 resulted in a message saying the number was "temporarily unavailable" on Monday.

Land compensation

Her detention comes after she told Radio Free Asia in a Jan. 6 interview that she has been targeted by the authorities ever since she spoke out against government appropriation of ethnic Kazakh herding communities' land to make way for highways and hydropower stations around Urumqi.

Zhanargul spoke out after some herding communities received low compensation or none at all for the loss of their grazing lands, with some of the compensation money believed embezzled by local government officials.

"I wrote in a letter that the Urumqi county government has been suppressing herding communities and violating management regulations for national grasslands including resettlement subsidies that herding communities should get," she said in the interview with RFA Mandarin on Jan. 6.

"Urumqi officials sent me to a concentration camp, for so-called re-education ... because I refused to apologize," she said, adding that she was initially detained at the Urumqi No.3 Detention Center in 2017, before being transferred to one of the mass incarceration camps across Xinjiang which the ruling Chinese Communist Party says are for "re-education" and "vocational training."

She was put under huge pressure in the camp to write a confession detailing her "extremist" thoughts based on religious material on her cell phone, but continued to insist on her innocence.

In the interview, Zhanargul described being made to sing revolutionary songs about the "motherland" and the Communist Party, as well as study the government's guidelines on religious "extremism," which include a number of behaviors that are required or commonly regarded as desirable for Muslims, such as reading the Quran, or wearing head-coverings or beards.

She also said she was injected with unknown substances by medical staff during her time in the camp.

"I nearly fainted, had diarrhea and felt nauseous afterwards," she said. "While they were injecting me, they laughed at my screams and asked if it hurt. I couldn't lift my arm for a couple of weeks after they injected me."

Zhanargul said she lost nearly half her body weight during her stay, developed a number of health problems, and was denied permission to communicate with her family.

"When I went in there, I weighed 86 kilos, and I was a very strong woman," she said. "By the time I got out in May 2019, I was a skeleton who weighed around 50 kilos. I almost died."

Camps 'still there'

Serikzhan Bilash said little has changed in Xinjiang since Zhanargul's incarceration in the camp.

"The inhumane genocidal policies haven't changed; they're still being implemented in Xinjiang," he said. "The Xinjiang concentration camps are still there."

He said that while the Chinese government had released some ethnic Kazahs and allowed them to be reunited with their relatives in Kazakhstan, those who remain inside China remain "under huge pressure."

He said in a Jan. 6 interview that Zhanargul was "extremely brave," as she had been one of the first camp detainees to speak out about her experiences while still in China.

"She is still in Xinjiang, so the state security police could make her disappear, fake her suicide, or put her in a psychiatric hospital at any time," he warned at the time.

Zhanargul's detention came after U.S. lawmakers called on Washington to do more to enforce recent laws passed by U.S. lawmakers addressing the forced labor of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority group, who have made up the majority of detainees in the camps.

The government has detained large numbers of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities simply for posting religious videos not approved by officials, or for possessing Qurans, prayer mats and traditional clothing, all of which have been described as evidence of "extremism" by Chinese police in recent years.

Sources estimate that Chinese authorities in Xinjiang have detained hundreds of ethnic Kazakhs in recent years, freezing their bank accounts and assets pending "investigation," also for “extremist” behavior that includes normal Islamic practices.

Chinese authorities are stepping up security measures ahead of next month’s annual parliamentary and advisory sessions in Beijing, detaining dozens of people coming to the capital with grievances and forcing them to go back home, Radio Free Asia has learned.

The moves come ahead of the country's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress.

More than 30 petitioners from Shanghai were detained en route to Beijing by train in recent days, a petitioner who gave only the surname Zhou for fear of reprisals said. "They have just started stability maintenance," Zhou said. "They now need to know the whereabouts of every petitioner."

"Anyone who goes to Beijing gets brought back – they brought back 30 to 40 people in the space of a week, because the Beijing and Tianjin police intercepted the train when it reached Beijing," Zhou said. "They handed them straight over to the Shanghai representative office in Beijing."

China's army of petitioners, who flood the ruling Chinese Communist Party's official complaints departments daily, frequently report being held in unofficial "black jails," beaten, or otherwise harassed if they persist in a complaint beyond its initial rejection at the local level.

They are often escorted home forcibly by "interceptors" sent by their local governments to prevent negative reports from reaching the ears of higher authorities, where they face surveillance, violent treatment and possible detention on criminal charges, particularly during major political events or on dates linked to the pro-democracy movement.

The situation was also confirmed by a Beijing resident who gave only the surname Tang.

"They've started coming in from every locality and detaining people [from their jurisdictions]," Tang said. "They've already arrived from Jilin, Shenyang, Liaoning, while the ones from Ningxia started detaining people on the first and second day of Lunar New Year."

Political machinery

The ruling Chinese Communist Party's advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference kicks off its annual session this year on March 4, closely followed by the National People's Congress, where party leader Xi Jinping will likely be nodded through for a third term as president after abolishing term limits in 2018.

Tang, who rents out rooms to petitioners in Beijing, said police had come to her home to warn her not to do so ahead of the parliamentary sessions.

"The police came round five days ago and told me not to rent rooms to petitioners, or my ability to make a living could be affected," she said. "More than a dozen people were taken away [on Thursday]."

"I had told 14 people they could stay with me, but they can't now."

Tang said the measures were part of nationwide "stability maintenance" measures aimed at nipping any possible mass gatherings or protests of those with grievances against the government in the bud.

A petitioner who gave only the surname Zhang from the central city of Wuhan said petitioners are often classified as "key" individuals by police and targeted for stability maintenance, based on how much of a threat they could pose to public order.

They then impose restrictions on them, preventing them from going to Beijing, Zhang said.

"I made a trip to [the central province of] Henan the day before yesterday," he said. "I had been planning to continue north [to Beijing] but five individuals from my local police station contacted me by phone and asked me what I was up to in Henan."

"They had very clear knowledge of my whereabouts and what I was doing."

A petitioner surnamed Li said he and several others were taken away by police recently and had their retinas and voiceprints recorded on a police database.

"We were taken in specially so they could take our retina prints and our voiceprints," Li said. "This means there's no escaping [the authorities], wherever you go."

"If you walk down the street, [nationwide facial recognition network] SkyNet can see where you're going, and they can use your voiceprint [to recognize you making a call] to control you," he said.

Background of the Incident: During the past few months, there has been a lot of anger among job aspirants in Uttarakhand regarding cheating in government recruitment examinations in the state. Students across the state have repeatedly held street protests against cheating in state government recruitment examinations. Uttarakhand recently faced a major paper leak case in which several people who appeared in graduation-level examination using the leaked paper were arrested by the Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF). After the Uttarakhand Subordinate Staff Selection Commission (UKSSSC) paper leak scam came into the public eye, 5 more government recruitment examinations for 770 posts were cancelled in September 2022. Details of the Incident: On February 08, 2023, a large number of job aspirants and members of the Berozgar Sangh Union, including Mr. Bobby Panwar, staged a peaceful sit-in protest at the Gandhi Park in Dehradun, demanding a CBI probe into irregularities in recruitment by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (UKPSC).

The protest was being held peacefully. While the protest was allowed to proceed during the day, in the evening, the Uttarakhand police brutally lathi-charged the students and forcefully removed them from Gandhi Park. The video of the police brutality in the middle of the night went viral on the internet.

(Video link attached here: https://www.abplive.com/videos/states/dehradun-unemployed- youth-stage-protest-again-protesting-lathi-charge-on-youth-2330811)

On February 09, 2023, around midnight Mr. Bobby Panwar and 12 other students were arrested and brought to Premnagar police station, after which they were taken to police station Jhajhra, Patelnagar and ISBT at night. On February 09, 2023 at 06:30 pm Dehradun police registered a FIR against Mr. Bobby Panwar, Mr. Ramesh Tomar, Mr. Amit Panwar, Mr. Sandeep Singh, Mr. Anil Kumar, Mr. Aman Chauhan, Mr. Shubahm Singh Negi, Mr. Lusun Todariya, Mr. Hariom Bhatt, Mr. Nitin Dutt, and Mr. Ram Kandawal at Kotwali Thana, Dehradun. The FIR was registered under sections of Indian Penal Code 147-Punishment for rioting, 186-Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions, 188-Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant, 307-Attempt to murder, 332-Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty, 34-Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention, 353-Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, 427-Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees. The next day all of them got medico-legal check-up done at Prem Nagar Government Hospital and Coronation Hospital and were then sent to Sidhuwal jail, Dehradun. On February 15, 2023 they all got bail from the district court and are out on bail now. After the arrest of the job aspirants on February 09, state-wide protests and candlelight marches were held by protestors, demanding their release along with CBI to investigation in the rigging in examination for government jobs. Various social organizations and human rights organizations have issued statements and protested against the police brutality on peaceful protests in Uttarakhand.

Ailing rights activist Huang Qi, who is serving a 12-year jail term in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan for "leaking state secrets," has once more been denied a visit from his lawyer, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Huang's lawyer turned up at Sichuan's Bazhong Prison on Wednesday in a bid to visit his client, but was turned away by the authorities, Huang's mother Pu Wenqing told friends via the WeChat messaging app on Wednesday evening.

Huang, now in his late fifties, has been identified by Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as one of 10 citizen journalists in danger of dying in detention.

He has repeatedly denied the charges against him and has refused to "confess," making him vulnerable to mistreatment and deprivation of rights and privileges in prison.

Later, Bazhong municipal police officers followed up with a visit to the lawyer at his hotel, Pu wrote in comments seen by a person in Chengdu who declined to reveal their identity for fear of reprisals.

"The reason was that the last time a lawyer had visited [Huang], they took photos inside the prison and posted them online," the person told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.

"The lawyer checked into a hotel in Bazhong city on the night of Feb. 7, and four police officers from the local police station turned up there and harassed them," the person said.

An employee who answered the phone at the Bazhong Prison on Thursday hung up the phone as soon as they heard the name Huang Qi.

Further calls to the same number rang unanswered during office hours.

Calls to Pu's number also rang unanswered on Thursday.

Another friend of Huang's who asked to remain anonymous said Pu is currently under close surveillance, surrounded by officials and unable to leave her home.

"Huang Qi's lawyer has never met with her, and ... petitioners [fellow rights activists] have also been unable to visit her," the friend said.

Pu, who is in her late eighties, said she was told by her doctor in June 2022 that her lung cancer was spreading to her liver, and called on the ruling Chinese Communist Party to allow her to visit her son in prison before she dies.

She said at the time she was living under surveillance by the state security police, who insisted on escorting her to every medical appointment.

The last time she was able to speak with Huang via video call was Nov. 24, 2022, according to the overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders network's Twitter account. A Jan. 28, 2022 meeting was abruptly cut off two minutes in, after she tried to discuss Huang's defense lawyers with him.

‘Leaking state secrets’

A court in the southwestern province of Sichuan handed down a 12-year jail term to Huang, a veteran rights activist and founder of the Tianwang rights website, on July 29, 2019.

Huang was sentenced by the Mianyang Intermediate People's Court, after it found him guilty of "leaking state secrets overseas."

Huang's lawyers and Pu have said all along that the case against Huang was a miscarriage of justice, even allowing for the traditionally harsh treatment of dissidents in China.

Chen Tianmao, a former police officer accused alongside Huang, has said the authorities in Sichuan's Mianyang city "faked" documents to use against Huang, as well as torturing Chen, Huang and a third defendant Yang Xiuqiong in a bid to force a "confession" out of them.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders tweeted on Nov. 24 that Huang had also submitted a number of official complaints over his case to the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate via the prison.

Huang's Tianwang website had a strong track record of highlighting petitions and complaints against official wrongdoing, and injustices meted out to the most vulnerable in society, including forced evictees, parents of children who died in the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and other peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The chief editor of the Ulysmedia.kz news website in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, says she received a box from unknown people that contained a hunk of meat and pictures of her children, a parcel she called a new attempt "to intimidate" her and her staff.

Samal Ibraeva told RFE/RL that the box was delivered to the website's office on February 8. She linked the box's delivery to the professional activities of her team, which she said has been the target of other intimidation attempts.

On January 18, Ulysmedia.kz had to suspend its operations following a hacking attack. Ibraeva said at the time that the attack was most likely linked to the website's work, adding that it had faced several previous similar attacks.

The incident comes at a time when the independent press in Kazakhstan is coming under pressure.

The Almaty-based Adil Soz (A Just Word) group, which monitors journalists' rights, said earlier that there have been at least five attacks against journalists in the Central Asian nation since January 1.

The subjects of the attacks, including Ulysmedia.kz, have been writing and reporting about Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the first anniversary of the violent dispersal of anti-government protests in Kazakhstan that turned into mass unrest that left at least 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, dead.

On January 20, presidential spokesman Ruslan Zheldibai said President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, who has initiated a series of changes since last year's deadly protests aimed at creating what he calls a "new Kazakhstan," has ordered law enforcement to investigate each attack against journalists.

Ibraeva said to RFE/RL on February 8 that, despite the presidential order to investigate the attacks, it remains unclear who is behind the assaults.

International human rights watchdogs and the embassies of several Western nations have urged Kazakh authorities to investigate the attacks.

Human rights alliance Karapatan expressed support for the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), as the missionary group faces another hearing of a civil forfeiture case filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) at the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 37 today, February 8, 2023. Karapatan joined calls by various faith-based and human rights organizations for the immediate dismissal of the charges against RMP.

Karapatan Secretary General said that the ongoing civil forfeiture and terrorism financing cases against RMP, which stem from fabricated testimonies, have resulted in the violation and arbitrary and unjust restriction of the rights of the RMP and the further deprivation of the impoverished and marginalized communities that the RMP serves.

Aside from the civil forfeiture case, sixteen individuals, including four nuns who are members of RMP, are facing non-bailable charges before an Iligan City court for alleged violation of Section 8 of Republic Act 10168 or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 punishable with 40 years imprisonment, and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1,000,000.

“We assail these moves as a prelude to the unjust and arbitrary designation of the RMP as ‘terrorist,’ following similar moves made against other individuals like Dr. Natividad Castro, a community doctor who has been servicing mostly Lumad and poor peasant communities in the Caraga region for decades. These measures are patently anti-poor,” slammed Palabay, citing the RMP’s more than 50 years of service to marginalized communities of farmers, indigenous people, fisherfolk and agricultural workers.

“The terrorist financing charges are reckless, false and baseless, since the RMP has consistently passed independent checks and reviews by strict and reputable funding agencies, including the European Union. Red-tagging, terrorist branding and hailing to court the real people’s heroes like the RMP nuns and development workers expose them to attacks and violations of their rights by State security forces and put their lives in danger,” Palabay stressed.

“Laws are clearly being weaponized against those critical of government policies, and those who fill the vacuum by providing much-needed services to the most severely neglected communities. The State must immediately cease and desist from this nefarious practice and provide support and encouragement instead of persecuting and prosecuting activists with lifelong pro-poor advocacies,” she added.

Karapatan today also joined protest actions at the Department of Justice calling for the resumption of peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Philippine government and demanding the removal of the arbitrary terrorist designation by the Anti-Terrorism Council of the NDFP, the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army as well as individual peace consultants and Dr. Natividad Castro.

“The resumption of the peace talks, as well as the reaffirmation of and adherence to previously signed agreements such as the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, is the way to go in tackling the roots of the armed conflict, instead of the arbitrary, dangerous and erroneous designation by the ATC that leads to gross violations of international humanitarian law and threats to lives, security and liberty, as well as the right to due process ” she ended.

The trial of 47 of Hong Kong's most prominent pro-democracy figures begins Monday, in the largest prosecution under a national security law that has crushed dissent in the city.

The proceedings are expected to last more than four months, and the defendants face up to life imprisonment if convicted.

Those on trial represent a cross-section of Hong Kong's opposition -- including legal scholar Benny Tai, former lawmakers Claudia Mo, Au Nok-hin and Leung Kwok-hung, and democracy activists Joshua Wong and Lester Shum.

They are charged with "conspiracy to commit subversion" for organising an unofficial primary election.

According to authorities, they were trying to topple Hong Kong's government, while the defendants say they are being prosecuted for practising normal opposition politics.

Their stated aim was to win a majority in the city's partially elected legislature, which would allow them to veto budgets and potentially force the resignation of Hong Kong's leader.

That vote was ultimately scrapped and Beijing installed a new political system that strictly vets who can stand for office.

The 47 were charged en masse under the national security law that China imposed in 2020, after huge and often violent pro-democracy protests.

Beijing says the law was needed to curb unrest, but critics say the crackdown on the opposition has eviscerated the city's autonomy and political freedoms.

• Fair or farce? -

Dennis Kwok, a former opposition lawmaker who now lives in the United States, described the trial as "a complete farce".

"Subversion is a crime that used to require someone who threatened to use violence... to overturn the regime," Kwok told AFP.

"It doesn't include people who simply run for office and pledge to use their public office to force the government to respond to the demands of the people they represent."

Prosecutors and government supporters see the unofficial primary differently.

"I would assume if your intent is to bring down the government, then that must be unlawful," said Ronny Tong, a veteran lawyer.

• A city transformed -

While Hong Kong has never been a democracy, it enjoyed far more freedoms than mainland China.

The national security law has transformed the city's political landscape as well as its common law legal traditions, refashioning Hong Kong's courts to more closely resemble the mainland's.

The law also empowered China's security apparatus to operate openly in the city.

Judges who sit on national security cases are handpicked by the city's leader and there has not yet been a trial in front of a jury.

Most of the defendants in this case -- 34 out of 47 -- have been jailed for almost two years. The few granted bail have to abide by strict conditions, including speech restrictions.

Legal and political analysts are watching the trial closely.

Eric Lai, at Georgetown University's Center for Asian Law, said Hong Kongers will be paying attention to "how the prosecution defines an ordinary civil society event as a criminal act".

Sixteen of the 47 have pleaded not guilty.

At least three will testify against their peers as prosecution witnesses, the court has been told.