Author Archives: DemDigest

Media crackdown raises fears for Pakistan’s democracy

     

  The abduction of newspaper columnist and prominent critic of the military, Gul Bukhari (left), came just a day after the army’s chief spokesman declared that social media users who… Read more »

Civil society fears Egypt’s crackdown signals start of a trend

     

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index classifies four of the countries at this year’s World Cup as “authoritarian” – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Egypt. The results at the World Cup for these… Read more »

How illiberalism took hold of central Europe

     

Leading Polish intellectuals are speaking out against the country’s judicial reforms. Fearing Poland’s democracy is at stake, they have urged the European Court of Justice to intervene, Deutsche-Welle reports: Former… Read more »

Russia – ‘change will come from grassroots’

     

The accepted narrative about Russia is simple: Vladimir Putin rules and a lemming-like society submits. The reality is more complicated, says Barbara von Ow-Freytag, a journalist, political scientist and adviser at the… Read more »

Bipartisan call for ‘comprehensive strategy’ to counter China’s covert influence ops

     

A bipartisan group of 12 senators has written a letter to senior Trump administration officials, urging them to craft a “comprehensive strategy” to counter covert Chinese interference in democracies around… Read more »

Assessing Zimbabwe’s elections: another GNU in the making?

     

Amid indications that the first round of voting in Zimbabwe’s July 30 ‘harmonized’ elections may not produce a clear winner, some civil society groups started putting together building blocks for… Read more »

North Korea’s human rights abuses won’t be raised at Singapore summit

     

The No. 1 topic at Tuesday’s summit between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will undoubtedly be the reclusive regime’s nuclear weapons, the Los Angeles Times reports: That’s… Read more »