Published: 11 November 2014

Region: Worldwide

On Monday October 13th, the Utah State University Administration received an email warning that a shooting massacre would be carried out in one of its events. The speech of the feminist blogger who explores women’s portrayal in video games,  Anita Sarkeesian, scheduled for the next day, was cancelled.

Like Sarkeesian, several other women in the video game industry have faced death and rape threats. Recently, an American game developer had to leave her home because of death threats against her and her family.

Published: 10 November 2014

Countries: US, Russia

“My name is Jon Novick. I’m 22 years old, and I am a dwarf with achondroplasia,” says the author of the short film Don’t Look Down On Me that has become a Youtube sensation with over 2,6 million hits. Novick’s film, which takes place in New York City, chronicles the backlash he receives daily for his disability. Novick‘s “button camera” which is pinned on his shirt, provides the viewer a chance to understand what it is like to live with dwarfism in a big city.

Novick is a part of Media Enabled Musketeers, a group of Russians and Americans committed to raising awareness about disability through film. There are almost 50 contributors who want to highlight the prejudices and the challenges they, as people with disabilities, face every day.

Deadline: 20 November 2015

Region: Worldwide

Nominations for the annual Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards 2015 are now open. These prizes honour the most remarkable free expression leading figures, recognising their fight to speak out in the most difficult conditions. Previous award winners include Anna Politkovkaya, Wikileaks, Nawaat, Malala Yousafzai and Ali Farzat, among others.

Index invites the public, NGOs and media organisations to nominate anyone they believe deserves to be awarded in one of the four categories: Campaigner, Digital Activism, Journalism and the Arts. Winners will be flown to London for the ceremony, which takes place at The Barbican on March 18 2015. In addition, Freedom of Expression awards celebrate its 15^th anniversary of the Freedom of Expression prizes inaugurating an Awards Fellowship open to all winners. This programme will provide training and support to amplify the work of the awarded.

Published: 27 October 2014

Region: Worldwide

Women pilots, academics and doctors, the first female prime minister in the Muslim world... This is not the usual set of topics that we can read about in the media in Pakistan. The journalist Zubeida Mustafa reports on her country writing about the issues usually excluded by the media, not only in Pakistan, but also by Western media.

“Women reporters’ stories are richer than the others. First, because they have a wider access to other women, so their sources are more diverse and complete. Second, because men tend to focus on politics while women do it in a more wide human dimension of stories,” says Zubeida Mustafa, awarded by the International Women’s Media Foundation in 2012 and one of the female foreign correspondents gathered in a new online project Global Voices: Truthdig Women Reporting.