Calls to outlaw violent political rhetoric in the wake of the Tucson attack are misguided, says Aryeh Neier. The solution is not to ban vitriol but to speak out against it
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Conventional wisdom suggests that the web’s power to drive social revolution is over-rated, but the Tunisian government still isn’t taking any chances. Its agents are hacking its opponents’ networks and sabotaging them, even as foreign hackers retaliate by doing the same to the state’s own sites. Rohan Jayasekera reports
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Two supporters of opposition candidates in the upcoming presidential election in Belarus have been attacked in the Western region of Hrodna. Kiryl Semyanchuk, who supports Uladzimer Nyaklaeu was assaulted by two men while he was distributing leaflets. A passer-by claimed she witnessed the two men leave a police car before the attack. In a second incident on the same day, Danila Kylauko, a supporter of presidential candidate Yaraslau Ramanchuk was hit and verbally abused by one man. Belarus’ presidential election is set to take place on 19 December.
Berivan Eker, former editor of the women’s magazine Renge Heviya Jine, has been arrested on charges of “spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation”. She faces 21 years in prison. Eker referred to PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan as the “leader of the Kurdish people” and praised alleged PKK members. Several of the magazine’s senior editors — Sultan Sonsuz, Ruken Aktaş and Gurbet Çakar — face similar charges. Renge Heviya Jine (The Colour of Women’s Hope) is the only magazine in Turkey published in both Turkish and Kurdish.