Dmitri Medvedev’s dismissal of Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov could help push Russia in a more democratic direction, writes Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and board member of the National Endowment for Democracy:

Many …

Final official election results confirm that President Hugo Chávez’s ruling Socialist Party only narrowly defeated the Democratic Unity opposition bloc in last weekend’s parliamentary poll.

The chávistas took 5.45 million votes or 48.9 percent of ballots, compared with 5.33 …

Anders Aslund offers advice to a young Russian woman: “It is better to marry a top state official than an oligarch. The money is the same, but job security is so much greater.”

Endemic corruption is the single greatest drag …

Malcolm Gladwell’s  New Yorker article about the limitations of ‘liberation technology’ has stirred up the blogosphere. But he gets it wrong, argues RFE/RL’s Luke Allnutt, by drawing a false distinction between traditional” and “digital” activism: …

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order authorizing targeted economic sanctions against leading Iranian officials for human rights abuses following last year’s disputed presidential election.

The regime continues to crack down on dissenters, banning two reformist parties and imprisoning a …

So using new media to promote democracy, isn’t always as easy as it sounds, as the World Movement for Democracy reports:

According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, on September 24, Ms. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of Prachatai online newspaper, …

The veteran American reporter, keen to reveal the treasures of on-line journalism to two youths in a Kashgar internet cafe, was frustrated to find Western news websites blocked by the censor.  

But, just a few keystrokes later, the young …

The killer of Russian human rights activist Natalya Estemirova is alive and will shortly be prosecuted, the country’s top criminal investigator has said.

“We know the perpetrator. We know his name. We are sure of his guilt,” Alexander Bastrykin told …

Cash for Coverage: Bribery of Journalists Around the World is the title of a new report from the Center for International Media Assistance:

The bribery of journalists is a serious problem for the profession worldwide. Some journalists, editors and media …

Engaging religious communities is a way forward for promoting democracy, argues R. Scott Appleby, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame.

He cites a Task Force Report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Engaging Religious Communities …