Brutal Repression of Protests continues in Brazil

State repression of protests in Brazil is nothing new. Throughout much of the military dictatorship from 1964-1985, freedom of expression was formally censored; this censorship applied to both the press and street protests. During the democratic period since then, reports of police violence against demonstrators are still not uncommon. Since 2013, however, this climate of …

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Gagging Spain’s Right to Protest

  Remember Pussy Riot? This unorthodox but legitimate denunciation of Putin’s politics by a punk group of Russian women in a Moscow Cathedral a couple of years ago would be penalised in Madrid, as of this week. Following the growing global trend towards authoritarianism in governments’ treatment of dissent, often accompanied by vaguely worded laws, …

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