Pakistan: YouTube blocked over anti-Islam film

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has reportedly ordered the state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block YouTube after the video-sharing website failed to remove a controversial anti-Islam film, The Innocence of Muslims. ”Blasphemous content will not be accepted at any cost,” Prime Minister Ashraf is reported to have said. Earlier today officials said over 700 links to the film on YouTube were blocked following orders issued by the Supreme Court. The film has triggered anti-US protests across the Muslim world over the past week.

China will change leaders, but keep censorship

As the Communist Party Congress approaches, Dinah Gardner looks at the prospects for free speech in the People’s Republic

Indian cartoonist arrested on sedition charges

The arrest of an anti-corruption cartoonist in India on sedition charges has sparked outrage. Marta Cooper reports

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Vietnam: free expression in free fall

Dissent has suffered a crackdown in Vietnam in recent years, with bloggers often being the main target. Geoffrey Cain asks what has prompted this backlash against free speech

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The case for open access

In many parts of the world, malaria continues to kill millions — yet experts are still denied access to vital research. Bart Knols reports

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Web 2.0: Don’t shoot the messenger

Search engines and social networking sites are at the heart of Web 2.0. To unreasonably threaten them with liability for user content misses the point, says Marta Cooper

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India’s face-off with Internet freedom

The world’s largest democracy is all too willing to censor the web, says Marta Cooper

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“Welcome to Myanmar, Mr BBC”

In 2007, Fergal Keane reported for Index on the near impossibility of working as a reporter in Burma. Returning in 2012, he found much had changed. But though the military is slowly loosening its grip, restrictions remain

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