GLOBAL: Academic freedom intelligence worldwide

In Iran, a student activist was flogged 74 times, a few hours before his release from prison after serving a sentence of one year for insulting the president. A Russian historian specializing in the life of ethnic Germans during the Soviet era went on trial behind closed doors on charges of illegally disclose personal data. In the UAE, a professor at the Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi has been detained since April, accused of insulting officials and rights groups have urged the university to support it. A former rector of the University of Cyprus has accused the town of Famagusta violate their right to free expression by the cancellation of a conference on July 11 naval base explosion. In India, a row has broken out following the Delhi University's decision to exclude a controversial trial of their history curriculum, and Malaysian students have protested against the suspension of a law professor criticizing the Sultan Selangor.

Iran: Student activist criticized for insulting Ahmadinejad

Iranian student activist Penman Area was flogged 74 times, a few hours before his departure from Even Prison in Tehran for insulting President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, the Guardian reported on October 9.

A prison guard masked administered the lashing before prison officials and Aref's wife.

Area, a student of political science at Tehran University, was arrested following the disputed presidential elections in 2009 and accused of propaganda against the state and having contact with foreign media.

In March 2010 he was sentenced to one year in prison and 74 lashes for insulting the president. As a protest in a letter condemning authorities repression of politically active students at universities, Area had refused to start a letter to the president with the formal greeting 'Salam'.

The student activist was also suspended for life from working as a journalist and was a member of any political party.

According to an Iranian journalist who asked to remain anonymous, political activists are often vague and ambiguous allegations linked below. But he described mooring Area for insulting the president as "shocking and unprecedented."

The incident occurred after weeks Tohidlou Somayeh, a doctoral student in sociology at Tehran University and activist for the former presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mousse, was whipped 50 times in an attempt to humiliate.