Hilary Wainwright reports from Thessaloniki on what happened when the state ordered Greece’s state broadcaster to shut down

Turkey's urban citizens are standing up against authoritarian governance, and for their right to the city, their right to difference, and their right to resist the top-down imposition of moral and spatial orders.

Flawed it may have been, but ERT, Greece's public broadcaster, was one of the few things holding the country together during these difficult times.

Valery Sidorenko and Sergei Ostapchuk, both tractor drivers, live together happily in a remote village in the Grodinsky region of Belarus. Alyona Soiko travelled there to meet them and hear their story.

Rouhani’s positive reputation among western powers when he led Iran’s nuclear negotiations provides Khamenei, if he wants, with the pretext for greater flexibility at this critical point.

During those rare moments when western media attention is turned to the country, it is usually with a focus on these security issues rather than on the democratic struggles of Mauritanian citizens. 

As the politics of aid to lower income countries comes under greater scrutiny are the needs of the poor in middle income countries being missed? And as 'big Pharma' flexes its muscles is enough being done to hold down skyrocketing vaccine prices to benefit those who need them most? The latest controversy is between two organisations that have the same goal - to provide vaccines to citizens of poorer countries.

‘How can we get peace and democracy when we still have domestic wars and when everyday people are dying?’ Jessica Nhkum spoke to Jennifer Allsopp at the Nobel Women's Initiative conference in Belfast about the importance of documenting human rights violations, injustices and inequality on the ground in Burma

Introducing openGlobalRights: a multilingual project aiming to bring people of the south and north together in a discussion about the future of human rights. Translations: Français, Español. 

The way in which gender figures in the picture of anti-immigrant sentiment is rarely discussed, yet anti-immigrant sentiment, wherever it is found, represents a rejection of ‘feminized’ populations and a concern with a national illusion that is distinctly masculine, says Nikandre Kopcke.

Despite it all, Hezbollah remains a key constituent of the weak and de-facto decentralised state - the legitimate representative of the overwhelming majority of Lebanese Shiites and the ally of the largest Christian Party in the country.

Those familiar with Syria before the conflict would recognize that xenophobic sentiments are contrary to the cultural DNA of Syria. But fears of difference have become much more entrenched as a result of the bloody conflict and the absence of a just authority.   

The Turkish state seems to be determined to repress ongoing and expanding  popular revolts largely by using a combination of three strategies: police force, propaganda and social media too. 

In this concluding piece of the re-birth of the nation series, the debate’s editor asks what these articles tell us about the left’s troubled relationship with ‘the nation’. How might these arguments inform efforts to develop a thinking politics outside of the party system?

Nationhood remains a 'durable' political concept primarily due to its intimacy with the ongoing process of modernity and its focus on human agency. As a result of this relationship, cultural analysis as uniquely placed to make observations about the past present and future of the form. 

In the second of her 'On broadcasting' column, Lis Howell argues that the BBC urgently needs to put its house in order before turning to the big political issues of 2017. The licence fee and new technology aren’t necessarily the big issues - the real crisis is about management and the alienation of young people and young talent.

The BBC's reporting of issues from NHS reform, welfare reform and the looming EU US trade deal can be better understood by looking at the BBC's Business Unit. A narrow and questionable 'business perspective' drives more coverage than viewers may think.

Emerging powers are starting to wield some clout on global rights but they need to do much more says Amnesty International’s Secretary General. Translations: Türkçe, Español, 中国语文, العربية