The National Free Press - World Edition: Free Speech, Free Press and Human Rights

What do athletes do after a humiliating defeat? Say, a 7-0 loss in a football match broadcast on national television?

It's not hard to imagine the locker room scene, as some players shuffle off to the showers with their heads hung low while others stare at the floor. Some probably vent their anger by throwing things, or perhaps pounding their lockers or kicking a nearby garbage can. The coach would have to say something, perhaps give a little pep talk about how to learn from the defeat and move on. The players would want to avoid the media horde outside the locker room, but the coach would have to explain what went wrong. 
 

Discriminatory Israeli Policies Demolish Village, Forcibly Displace West Bank Residents - The Israeli government should immediately stop the arbitrary destruction of Palestinian homes and other property in the West Bank and compensate the people it has displaced, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli authorities destroyed 141 Palestinian homes and other buildings in July 2010, the largest number in any month since at least 2005, and have already carried out dozens of demolitions in August.

"While Israel is demolishing more and more Palestinian homes, it continues to subsidize the Jewish settlements nearby," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Israel has flouted international law not only by supporting settlements on occupied territory, but also by erasing longstanding Palestinian communities next door."
 

As millions of Pakistanis continue to suffer from the flooding that has hit a fifth of the country, journalists’ organisations and media support groups are stepping up their efforts to help news media and journalists in the affected areas.

Reporters Without Borders has provided financial support to three independent newspapers – Shamal, Salam and Chand – in one of the worst-hit areas, the Swat valley, where the electricity supply was cut off 29 July, including in Mingora, the base of the valley’s leading media.
 

Harassment on the Rise Against Women - Russia should put an end to local rules forcing women in Chechnya to observe an Islamic dress code, Human Rights Watch said today.

Since the start of Ramadan in mid-August, Human Rights Watch has received numerous reports from Chechnya about women being harassed in the streets of Grozny, the republic's capital, for not covering their hair and/or wearing clothes deemed too revealing.
 

Reporters Without Borders condemns the closure of three newspapers in the past few days and the imposition of a jail sentence on another journalist in the government’s continuing crackdown on the media.

The Commission for Press Authorisation and Surveillance, the censorship arm of the ministry of culture and Islamic orientation, has suspended the business daily Asia and withdrawn the licences of the weeklies Sepidar and Parastoo, while Badrolsadat Mofidi, the secretary-general of the Association of Iranian Journalists, has been sentenced to six years in prison.
 

Governments and UN Should Press for Justice - Israeli military investigations into the Gaza war have brought some results over the past 18 months but fall far short of addressing the widespread and serious allegations of unlawful conduct during the fighting, while Hamas has announced no serious investigations whatsoever, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch called on governments and the United Nations to increase their pressure on Israel and Hamas to conduct credible, independent investigations.