Hard to believe that starting a book club could garner legal trouble, but activists in Angola have now spent one year in jail for doing just that; staying with free speech violations that would give The Onion a run for its money, Burma sentenced four men to a year in prison for printing the word “Rohingya” on a calendar, a word Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi still refuses to utter.
Turkey and Egypt continued their respective crackdowns as Turkish rights defenders were jailed on spurious ‘terrorism’ charges while YouTube activists face prison terms for producing satirical videos that mock President Sisi; Venezuela faces a health and food crisis; and people around the globe celebrated World Refugee Day in a year that has seen record numbers of desperate people seeking refuge.
