With 145 reporters, editors, and photojournalists behind bars on December 1st, the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide reached its highest level since 1996, according to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Much of the increase is attributable to China’s jailing of ethnic minority reporters and Iran’s crackdown on dissident voices [READ MORE]

Tuesday, December 7, 2010. 10 a.m. Honoring Liu Xiaobo. News conference to honor the Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize winner and call on the Chinese government to improve its human rights record. Speaker/s: Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.; Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa.; Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J.; Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.; Rep. David Wu, D-Ore.; Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala.; Sophie [READ MORE]

While sharply critical of Egypt’s election, the U.S. administration also strikes a conciliatory tone, emphasizing that the U.S. would still strive to improve the country’s democratic processes.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the Egyptian government and Egypt’s vibrant civil society to help Egypt achieve its political, social, and economic aspirations consistent with international standards,” he said.

The [READ MORE]

The WikiLeaks cables may be irresponsibly endangering democracy and human rights advocates in repressive regimes, but they also illuminate the differences between democratic and autocratic states.

“The juicy leaks rarely involve our democratic allies,” notes Elliott Abrams, a former deputy national security adviser, “but rather countries in which free elections, free speech and a free press don’t exist.”

Dictators [READ MORE]

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has highlighted human rights and the role of civil society at the start of a three-nation tour of Central Asia.

Attending the first summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to be chaired by a former Soviet republic, she stressed that the 1975 Helsinki accords’ human rights provisions [READ MORE]

December 1, 2010. Taiwan Democracy at Home and Abroad: Domestic Elections and Cross-Strait Relations. Speakers: Robert Sutter, visiting professor at Georgetown University; Liu Shih-chung, research fellow at the Taiwan Brain Trust; David Brown, adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; and Anne Hsaio, assistant research fellow at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan. 9:30 a.m. Venue: Atlantic [READ MORE]

With the result predetermined, analysts suggest the most interesting question about Egypt’s parliamentary election will be the U.S. response.

Democracy advocates have urged the Obama administration to be more forceful and consistent in supporting political reform or risk provoking Islamist radicalization.

Given that Sunday’s poll has been rigged to deliver a majority for the ruling National Democratic Party, [READ MORE]

National Endowment for Democracy

Senior Planning Officer, Program Assistant- Grantmaking Resource Center, Program Officer for Middle East and North Africa.  

Center for International Private Enterprise

Program Assistant- Middle East and North Africa, Program Officer – Middle East and North Africa.

International Republican Institute

DC-based opportunities: [READ MORE]

After 500 years of Western hegemony, has China managed to replicate the several “killer apps” that gave the West the edge over the rest? Niall Ferguson believes so.

Several emerging economies have now developed most of the technological, economic, cultural and scientific underpinnings that gave competitive advantage to [READ MORE]