Amnesty International Condemns Cuba’s Suppression of Dissent
On December 26, Amnesty International denounced four Cuban tactics to suppress dissent.
One tactic was short-term detention as a “tool of control and intimidation. [P]lacing a person under arrest for a few hours or days ‘sends a message of terror to those who dissent.’”
Another tactic was cutting internet service as a way “to silence protests.”
The third tactic was “the criminalization of…
In its order granting the three activists bail, the Delhi High Court said the government should be careful of “the line between constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and terrorist activity.” “It seems that in its anxiety to suppress dissent, in the mind of the state, the line between constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and terrorist activity seems to be getting somewhat blurred. If this mindset gains traction, it would be a sad day for democracy.”
‘Indian court grants bail to activists arrested over Delhi riots’, Al Jazeera
There is no point at which dissent becomes acceptable to authoritarians. They are the boot that will stamp your face to mush, all the time demanding you apologize for the unceasing offense that is your desire to be free.
Talia Lavin, Credulity and Barbarity in the Age of Trump
'It would be a good idea for me to live outside our god-protected Motherland for a while,' he wrote on Facebook
Trump’s hero, Putin, has his own way of suppressing dissent and those getting too close.
Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist critical of the Kremlin, has been killed in Kiev.
Mr Babchenko was shot at his home on Tuesday evening and died in an ambulance on the way to hospital. According to Anton Geraschenko, a Ukrainian politician with close links to the police and security services, the journalist had left his apartment to buy provisions, and was attacked on his return.
"When Arkady opened the door of his flat, the killer cowardly shot him in the back, firing several shots," he wrote on Facebook.
It was understood that his critical reporting of the wars in Ukraine and Syria had contributed to the elevated sense of danger. Russian state TV had been particularly forthright in criticising a blog post in which he expressed “indifference” for the deaths of “Russian military representatives” aboard an aircraft bound for Syria that crashed near Sochi.
Mr Babchenko’s death is the latest in a series of high-profile murders in Kiev. The 2016 assassination of investigative journalist Pavlo Sheremet remains unsolved, with no arrests or convincing investigation made. A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists criticised the Ukrainian authorities' "pushing [a] Russian narrative" in the case, despite "circumstantial evidence" suggesting a Ukrainian trace.