Freedom House welcomes the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo and hopes that it will put an end to the violence that has besieged Côte d'Ivoire and claimed hundreds of civilian lives.

Freedom House strongly condemns today's sentencing of Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil to three years in jail for criticizing the Egyptian military and calls upon the military tribunal to release him without harm and to cease the prosecution of peaceful protesters and civilians.

Freedom House calls upon the government forces in Swaziland to respect the rights of the people to engage in peaceful protests and urges restraint during anti-government protests planned for tomorrow.

Freedom House strongly condemns the brutal crackdown in Swaziland today on citizens peacefully demanding dismissal of the corrupt government that has bankrupted their country. Freedom House calls upon the Swazi Government to immediately release detained civil society activists and to heed their demands for democratic change.

A new Freedom House report released today found that while the majority of circumvention tools used to evade government censorship online perform similarly well, the country in which they are used and the nature of the censorship dictate their effectiveness. No one tool provides a silver bullet for security as governments become more sophisticated in filtering content and monitoring user activity. Leaping Over the Firewall: A Review of Censorship Circumvention Tools utilized user survey data and technical testing to evaluate various available circumvention tools for both functionality and ease of use.

Freedom House is deeply concerned about the deaths of four detainees in Bahrain in recent days and urges the government to investigate torture allegations and to cease its campaign of repression against Shiites and other dissenting voices.

Freedom House deeply mourns the recent loss of Sidney Harman, a valuable member of its board of trustees, who passed away April 12, 2011.

Freedom House strongly opposes proposed cuts to the International Affairs Budget as Congress continues to consider Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 and FY 2012 spending. On Wednesday, the House Budget Committee considered a bill, written and introduced by Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), that would slash international affairs spending for 2012 by almost 30% compared to current levels.

The recent Koran burning by Florida pastor Terry Jones and his followers, while intentionally hateful and offensive, does not justify the killing and injuring of innocent people in Afghanistan and Freedom House strongly condemns these vicious acts.

Freedom House is deeply concerned about the alarming increase in restrictions on the media and targeted harassment and arrests of opposition leaders and Shiites in Bahrain since martial law was declared on March 14 and calls on the government of Bahrain to end the emergency law and to immediately release those arrested.

In light of a troubling wave of disappearances of Chinese activists, Freedom House calls upon U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell to formally request visitation with disappeared artist and activist Ai Weiwei, as well as others whose whereabouts are unknown, during his visit to Beijing tomorrow. Freedom House also calls on Campbell and other senior Administration officials to make clear, publicly and privately, that human rights in China are a central issue in the U.S.-China relationship.

Freedom House commends the actions by the United Nations and France intended to bring the deadly political standoff in Côte d'Ivoire to a close and again calls upon Laurent Gbagbo to step down without further use of force.

Freedom House hailed the announcement today by UNESCO that it's prestigious annual Guillermo Cano/World Press Freedom Prize for journalists will go to Ahmad Zeidabadi, a leading Iranian journalist serving a six-year prison term for his writings after the disputed Iranian presidential election of 2009. The award, which honors journalists who have displayed exemplary courage, will be presented during a World Press Freedom day event on May 3 in Washington, D.C.

Freedom House strongly condemns ongoing government attacks on protesters in Yemen and calls upon President Ali Abdullah Saleh to acknowledge that order cannot be restored as long as he remains in power. Freedom House urges Saleh to immediately hand over power to an interim government until elections can be held, allowing the country to move toward democratic reform.