カテゴリー: Freedom of speech
Iran has shown how plausible blackouts now are, with far-reaching consequences for the internet as we know itDuring the height of Iran’s blackout in January, people could still access a platform that, in some senses, was like the internet.Iranians coul…
Murray Hunter charged with offence which carries a potential penalty of two years in jail, or a 200,000 baht (AUD$9,500) fineAn Australian academic and journalist faces up to two years in prison after being charged – in Thailand – with defaming the Mal…
Sara Rydkvist, the Hong Kong programme director of Amnesty International, and Francis Bown on the threat from China to academic freedom on British campusesYour report (UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China, 3 November) is…
For 48 hours Afghanistan had been cut off from mobile and internet services in a Taliban-imposed shutdownJust before nightfall on Wednesday, the near-deserted streets of Afghanistan’s capital suddenly filled with people – mobile phones everywhere had p…
Nobel prize winner says US institutions have collapsed much quicker than expected under the Trump administrationThe Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa has said Americans are like “deer in the headlights” amid the collapse of US institutions and free speech…
Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel sets US on course similar to that charted by authoritarian regimes from Egypt to IndiaThe exiled Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef has experienced firsthand how intolerant governments can silence political satire. And he had a …
Censorship order accuses books of promoting ‘false narrative and secessionism’ in disputed territoryThe government in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir has banned 25 books, including works by the Booker-prize winning author Arundhati Roy, accusing …
Exclusive: Thames Valley police requested Carmen Lau ‘avoid public gatherings’ after neighbours received bounty lettersA former Hong Kong politician and prominent democracy campaigner has accused British police of asking her to “self-censor” and “retre…
In 2015, a nationwide campaign rounded up hundreds of rights advocates. Since then, suppression has become more systematic and less visible, lawyers sayA decade on from China’s biggest crackdown on human rights lawyers in modern history, lawyers and ac…
Attacks and self censorship, draconian anti-terror laws and tycoons’ control over the media, are all seen as eroding the country’s democracyAt her home in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Harleen Kapoor* reflects with melancholy on how, sinc…
Grisly gifts a worrying turn for press freedom in world’s third-largest democracyWarning: some readers may find an image in this story distressingWhen a large box arrived at the office with her name on it, Indonesian investigative journalist Francisca …
Shiv Sena party supporters tore apart the Habitat comedy club after Kunal Kamra’s satirical song about a top ministerA mob violently ransacked a Mumbai comedy club and its building has been partly demolished after one of India’s most prominent comedian…
A group ransacked the Habitat comedy club in Mumbai on Sunday night after comedian Kunal Kamra performed a satirical song about local ruling politician Eknath Shinde. Men wearing scarves belonging to Shiv Sena, Shinde’s rightwing party, were seen inte…
Treatment of Gerald Flynn, who writes for the outlet Mongabay, condemned as attack on independent media A British environmental and investigative journalist has been banned from entering Cambodia, in what press groups have condemned as yet another atta…
Social media users will need to verify their identities under new decree 147, prompting fears it will undermine expression and expose anonymous dissidentsSocial media users in Vietnam on platforms including Facebook and TikTok will need to verify their…