Kyrgyzstan: Abusive Crackdowns on 'Extremist' Material

Expand Counterterrorism police carry out a search in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on October 16, 2015. © 2016 Ulan Asanaliev/RFE/RL (Bishkek) – Kyrgyzstan is convicting hundreds of people for possessing videos, pamphlets, and books that it has banned using a dangerously overbroad definition of extremism, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Offenders are sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison even if they did not distribute the material or use it to incite violence. The 78-page report, “‘We Live in Constant Fear’: Possession of Extremist Material in Kyrgyzstan,” finds that in some cases,…

Read complete article

~	In Brazil, the intelligence services spied on over 300,000 citizens during the military dictatorship

~	Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

~	The politics stopping the UK from opening a youth mobility scheme with Europe

~	Tarantino abandons his tenth film – five other times Hollywood giants cancelled big projects

~	Jordan has long been a beacon of stability in the Middle East – but that looks to be changing

~	Male baldness is often trivialised – our research shows it should be taken seriously

~	To tackle climate change Labour must rebuild the planning system – not ‘bulldoze’ it

~	US drugs regulator gives LSD ‘breakthrough’ status for treating anxiety – why this is so significant

~	I contributed to the Misogyny In Music report – it’s sadly unsurprising that its recommendations have been rejected

~	Spotify just made a record profit. What can the platform do now to maintain momentum?