Showing posts with label FREE SPEECH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FREE SPEECH. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

SECRETARY KERRY'S STATEMENT ON DETENTION OF MAZEN DARWISH IN SYRIA

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
The Detention of Mazen Darwish by the Assad Regime
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
February 18, 2015

It has been three years since the Assad regime unjustly detained leading human rights defender Mazen Darwish, founder of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression and a proponent of free speech in Syria.

In February 2012, Darwish and his colleagues were working to expose the Assad regime’s atrocities when regime security forces raided their offices and locked them away. Like tens of thousands of Syrian activists and political prisoners who have been detained and arrested for exercising their universal right to free expression, their support for human rights and non-violent calls for change were met by regime brutality.

Well-documented and horrific abuse within the Syrian detention system has shocked the conscience of the international community. We call on the Assad regime to abide by its international obligations in its treatment of Darwish and all those in its custody.

We reiterate our call for the Assad regime to release Darwish and his colleagues, including prominent blogger Hussein Ghrer and journalist Hani al-Zitani, along with all arbitrarily detained journalists and political prisoners.

Friday, March 21, 2014

U.S. "DEEPLY CONCERNED" ABOUT TURKISH GOVERNMENT BLOCKING TWITTER

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 
Statement by the Press Secretary on Blocking of Twitter in Turkey

The United States is deeply concerned that the Turkish government has blocked its citizens’ access to basic communication tools.  We oppose this restriction on the Turkish people’s access to information, which undermines their ability to exercise freedoms of expression and association and runs contrary to the principles of open governance that are critical to democratic governance and the universal rights that the United States stands for around the world.  We have conveyed our serious concern to the Turkish government, urge Turkish authorities to respect the freedom of the press by permitting the independent and unfettered operation of media of all kinds, and support the people of Turkey in their calls to restore full access to the blocked technologies.

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