NEAR Newsletter February 2003
Welcome to the NEAR Newsletter. In this edition you will find our most recent Action Alerts and also an ‘Academic Freedom in the Media’ section, listing news by country (February 2003). Any comments and suggestions about the content and layout of the newsletter will be gratefully received at roisin.joyce@nearinternational.org.
NEAR Action Alerts *Taken from the NEAR website
Vietnam: Internet Crack-Down: Law Graduate in Prison
Amnesty International reported that Le Chi Quang, a 32-year-old law graduate, is serving a four-year prison sentence after circulating information via the Internet, condemning the government's recent border agreement with China. A dissident and advocate of political reform, he was arrested at an Internet café on 21 February 2002.
Zimbabwe: ZINASU Wins 2003 Student Peace Prize
ZINASU’s (the Zimbabwe National Student’s Union) fight for peace and human rights in Zimbabwe has received international recognition. The organisation has been awarded the Student Peace Prize 2003 by the International Student Festival in Trondheim. The ISFiT awards the Peace Price once every two years to a student or a student organization that has done a particular effort for democracy and human rights.
Indonesia: Writer and Academic Lesley McCulloch Released
The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN welcomes the release of Lesley McCulloch on 9 February. Academic and writer Lesley McCulloch was released from jail in Indonesia following the expiry of her five-month custodial sentence. She is reportedly planning to return to her post at the University of Tasmania, where she will resume research concerned with the Indonesian province of Aceh.
** Please continue to send us any relevant cases involving threats to academic freedom and education rights, for potential alerts.
The Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR) is a membership-based, non-governmental organisation which facilitates international collaboration between organisations active in issues of academic freedom and educational rights, and committed to promoting an understanding of, and respect for, the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For more information about NEAR, please visit our website at www.nearinternational.org
For further information please contact:-
Roisin Joyce
Deputy Director
roisin.joyce@nearinternational.org