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NEAR Newsletter April 2005

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 (April 2005). 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

China: Pro-democracy Lecturer Sacked at Bejing University

Jiao Guobiao, a journalism lecturer at Beijing University, was sacked from his post at the end of March 2005. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the dismissal and calls on the Chinese government to restore him to his post and stop restricting Internet discussion forums. Jiao got a letter from the university authorities demanding that he voluntarily resign and a few weeks earlier, online discussion forums at several universities were banned to non-students.

United States of America: US Denies Visa To "Terrorist" Nicaraguan Professor

Dora Maria Tellez was to take up her post as Harvard professor in spring 2005, but she saw her visa denied by US state department. Academics and writers have strongly condemned the decision. Ms Tellez, who epitomised the Nicaraguan revolution that overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, has been denied entry to the US on the grounds that she had been involved in "terrorism".

** 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