A Russian court has sentenced journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who dared to openly challenge state propaganda, to 8.5 years in a penal colony for “spreading false news about the Russian Army,” as reported by the Russian independent human rights monitor OVD-Info on Wednesday.

After experts discovered that the phone of the co-founder of an exiled Russian media outlet critical of President Vladimir Putin's regime and the war in Ukraine had been infected withPegasus spyware, a media watchdog called on Thursday for a ban on the production and use of spyware technologies.

United Nations experts on human rights and media freedom havecalled on Russian authorities to immediately release American journalist Evan Gershkovich and expressed concern over the escalating number of treason and espionage arrests in Russia since the country invaded Ukraine last year.

Lawmakers in the Bosnian Serb-dominated part of Bosnia and Herzegovina passedamendments to the region's Criminal Code on Thursday that reinstate insult and defamation and foresee harsh punishments. Critics say the move will seriously jeopardize freedom of speech and silence critics.

International press freedom advocates urged Myanmar to immediately and unconditionally release journalist Hmu Yadanar Khet Moh Moh Tun and to cease imprisoning journalists for their journalistic work.

Russian authorities launched a series of raids on Thursday targeting opposition politicians and activists who have been criticizing the Kremlin's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Russia’s persecution of critics of the Kremlin or of the invasion of Ukraine is lately taking bizarre twists, with Russians living abroad being sentenced in absentia for spreading fake news to people in Russia paying fines for dreaming about Volodimir Zelensky.

A Belarus court opened on Tuesday a trial in absentia of the country’s leading opposition politicians, including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled the country after she challenged the country’s long-time autocratic president Aleksandr Lukashenko at the 2020 elections.

Acourt in Kazakhstan decided on Tuesday to keep one of the country’s best known investigative reporters in custody for two months and investigate allegations against him which he and his supporters believe to have been fabricated in revenge over articles he wrote.

Azerbaijani authoritiesarrested on Sunday the editor of an independent outlet and a lawyer known for defending journalists, activists and political prisoners, accusing them of bribery. Both have denied the allegations but will remain detained during a four-months-long investigation period.

First someone bugged Bolot Temirov’s apartment. Then police raided his office and allegedly planted drugs on him.

Now, Kyrgyz law enforcement has gone even farther: On May 17, the journalist announced that the interior ministry had declared his passport invalid, potentially stripping him of his Kyrgyz citizenship.

An international media watchdog urged Myanmar authorities on Monday to promptly free two journalists working for foreign media and dismiss all charges against them.