From China to Russia to Venezuela, governments have used pandemics to stifle free speech, says Amnesty International

Governments around the world, from China to Russia, from Nicaragua to Venezuela to Cuba, used the pandemic as a pretext to silence criticism or restrict access to information, says an Amnesty International report released on Monday. In the 38-page report "Silenced and Uninformed: Freedom of Expression at Risk during Covid-19", the organization details how since last year governments "launched an unprecedented attack on freedom of expression, severely restricting rights", censoring social networks, closing the media and obstructing other channels of communication. Brazil is not among the countries where the deterioration in freedom of expression has been most acute, but it…