Good on spin, bad on justice

The Ministry of Justice was more concerned with spinning the ‘Titan prisons’ controversy than complying with its own Freedom of Information Act, says
Chris Ames

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Privacy laws are just image control for celebs

Only the powerful benefit from a muzzled media. A free, sometimes scurrilous press is what keeps the spirit of inquiry alive says Sir Ken Macdonald QC

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Setting the censorship standard

Thirty years on, the Williams Committee Report still provides a better framework for film classification than the lamentable Obscene Publications Act, says
Julian Petley

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A victory for privacy?

The government’s climbdown on a central communications database is welcome, says Ian Brown. But plans are still afoot to gather more and more Internet users’ details

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‘We know where you surf’

Advertising software company Phorm’s legality is being questioned by the European Commission. Bill Thompson explains.

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Iran: Saberi is no spy

The imprisonment of Roxana Saberi for ‘espionage’ is the act of a government obsessed with controlling the media, says Omid Memarian

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Securing the right to protest

Controversy still rages over police handling of G20 protesters. As an inquiry into policing of demonstrations is launched, Liberty’s Bridget Beale looks at how a vital part of democracy can be safeguarded

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Iraq: the case for disclosure mounts

Newly released documents reveal the very real need for an Iraq inquiry, says
Chris Ames

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Galloway to appeal Canadian ban

British Member of Parliament George Galloway plans to challenge the Canadian immigration ministry’s decision to ban him from entering the country, it was confirmed last night.

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Wilders challenges UK ban

Dutch MP Geert Wilders has launched an appeal against the Home Office’s decision to ban him from travelling to the UK.

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Guardian loses legal challenge against Barclays gagging order

The Guardian has lost a high court challenge to lift an emergency gagging order imposed on the publication of Barclays bank documents alleged to detail huge tax avoidance schemes.

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Freedom of Expression Awards 2009 shortlist announced

Index on Censorship today announces the shortlist for the 2009 Freedom of Expression Awards.

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Pakistan: the long march to where?

The crackdown on the lawyers protest is another sign of a regime on the brink of collapse, says Zubeida Mustafa

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Afghani journalist shot dead

Journalist Jawed Ahmad was gunned down by two men while getting out of his car in the southern city of Kandahar yesterday.

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Afghanistan: Kambakhsh sentence cannot stand

We must do everything in our power to secure the release of the young Afghan journalist, says Padraig Reidy

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Freedom of Expression Awards tickets now on sale

Tickets are now on sale for the 2009 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards. Ticket price includes a champagne reception, three-course meal and multimedia presentation. The event takes place at 6.30pm on 21 April at London’s fantastic new arts venue,
Kings Place.

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Expression in the Emirates

Dubai’s censorship extends far beyond book festivals, says Christopher Davidson

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Anna Politkovskaya: no justice

The acquittals in the Anna Politkovskaya murder case highlight a culture of impunity that must be brought to an end, writes
Tanya Lokshina

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Neo-Nazis threaten Russian research centre

On Sunday Russian neo-Nazi group BTO emailed a death threat to Galina Kozhevnikova, the deputy head of human rights research centre SOVA.

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Index on Geert Wilders

Index on Censorship news editor Padraig Reidy was a guest on BBC Radio Five Live’s Breakfast show this morning, discussing the banning of Geert Wilders (right) from Britain, and its ramifications for free expression.
You can listen on iPlayer here (at 2hr 40min)

Iraq: counting on change

Iraq began a year of elections with regional council votes in 14 governorates on Saturday. Yet more work has still to be done to guarantee a fair national dialogue on the issues – in the press, through the national media, the public broadcaster and by the independent election authority itself. Rohan Jayasekera reports

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Radio Kalima attacked

Intimidation of employees of Tunisia’s Radio Kalima continued on Thursday, after police surrounded the premises of the satellite radio station earlier in the week. Staff were threatened and detained and the station’s equipment was sabotaged and later seized. Managing editor Omar Mestiri was said to have been threatened with a knife. More

A mistake we must forgive

The BBC is an institution we need to cherish, says Brian Cathcart, whatever its errors of judgment over the Gaza appeal

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‘Wilders must be supported’

It does not matter if you agree with Geert Wilders’s film, Fitna, or his politics. He must not be prosecuted for expressing his views, writes Oliver Kamm

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Reporter held by Fatah

Index on Censorship has received a report that Al-Ahram Weekly’s correspondent in the West Bank, Khalid Amayreh, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service last night following a interview with Al-Quds TV station in which he accused the PSS of preventing Palestinians in the west bank from organising massive pro-Gaza demonstrations.

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Thailand: academic calls for campaign to abolish lèse majesté

Political scientist Ji Ungpakorn, a professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University and a prominent activist, has called for a campaign to abolish the country’s lèse majesté law.

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Chennai censor board urges cut in smoking scenes

Babu Ramaswamy, an official at the censor board in the South Indian city of Chennai, has announced that film censors shall be paying keen attention to instances of smoking and drinking deemed unnecessary. The board has also suggested that film directors run a scroll with a health warning whenever someone lights up in a film. Read more here

Memory under siege

The raid on a leading historical research centre in St Petersburg is an attack on freedom of expression, writes historian Orlando Figes

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Protesters and police clash in Yemen

Eleven people were injured, two of them police, during a protest in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa last Thursday.

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UK: Shadow Immigration Minister Arrested

The shadow immigration minister, Damian Green, was arrested last night over his alleged involvement in a series of leaks from the Home Office.

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Iran: media crackdown continues

Bahman Totonchi, a journalist for the former Kurdish weekly Karfto, was arrested on 18 November following a house search by intelligence agents. The authorities had been harassing the journalist since the closure of Karfto on 29 December last year, when the weekly’s licence was withdrawn for good on the grounds of “failure to publish regularly”. It is not known where Totonchi is now being held.

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Detained Sri Lankan journalist moved to army prison

On 18 November, journalist JS Tissainayagam, currently on trial before the High Court under the country’s Terrorism Act, was moved to the notorious Magazine prison in Colombo after more than 150 days in detention.

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Roadmap for free expression

As Google, Yahoo and Microsoft sign up to a ground-breaking code of conduct, will this change the way they do business with repressive regimes? Leslie Harris, who was a key player in forging the agreement, explains what it means for free speech.

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Uzbekistan’s president goes unpunished

In lifting sanctions less than one year on from the murder of Alisher Saipov, the EU is letting Uzbekistan’s brutal dictator get away with murder, says Michael Andersen

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Pukanic murder ‘the work of professionals’

The assassination of Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic reveals the dangers of reporting on Croatia’s complex organised crime world, writes Goran Milakovic

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Kambakhsh: a victim of two ideologies

Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh’s ordeal is part of the battle for the soul of Afghanistan, writes Harun Najafizada

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Azerbaijan goes to polls with weakened media

President Aliyev’s tight grip on the press has severely damaged his country’s democracy, writes
Vugar Gojayev

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Russia: freedom of belief under threat

The gravest danger to religious freedom in Russia comes from the Kremlin’s approach to combating extremism, writes Geraldine Fagan of Forum 18

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Anna Politkovskaya: unanswered questions

Three men are facing trial for the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, but the investigation is far from over. Index on Censorship reports

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Egypt: press union will appeal Eissa sentence

Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Eissa has been sentenced to two months imprisonment. But the case is far from over. Index on Censorship reports

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Malaysia: would watchdog free web?

The establishment of an independent press council may help protect journalists and Internet activists like Raja Petra Kamaruddin, writes
Daniel Chandranayagam

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Internet protocol

New laws on digital media in Thailand may strengthen the nation’s lese-majesty laws, writes David Jardine

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Editor arrested for article on labour practices

Amare Aregawi, editor for Ethiopian weekly the Reporter, was arrested on 22 August in connection with a libel case lodged by the Dashen brewery in Gondar.

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Radio stations under attack

Two Venezuelan radio stations were shut down, their equipment seized and their offices sealed by military personnel on 18 August. Both stations, Rumbera Network 101.5 FM, and Llanera 91.3 FM in the Guárico province, were raided by soldiers.

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Sense and sensitivity

There really are no genuine excuses for Random House’s withdrawal of The Jewel of Medina, writes Padraig Reidy

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New bill curbs freedom of assembly

Freedom of assembly is under threat in Kyrgystan after President Kurmanbek Bakiev signed an amended law on the rights of citizens on 6 August. The amendment makes it mandatory to register public gatherings twelve days in advance, and prohibits demonstrations over a period of several hours.

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Syrian dissident freed

Dissident Syrian freed Syrian dissident Aref Dalila has been freed by Syrian authorities seven years into his ten-year jail term. The economist was jailed in 2002 on charges of inciting armed rebellion, spreading false information and trying to change the constitution by weakening national sentiment.

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Olympic challenge

As the Games begin in Beijing, Index publishes a roundup of arrests, detentions and surveillance since January –– a reminder that China has yet to meet its Olympic challenge of harmony and openness.

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Media bill threatens Internet freedom in Belarus

Websites will be subject to further restrictions under the country’s new media law, passed by President Lukashenko on 5 August. The law stipulates that online content will now be subject to the same restrictions as the print press.

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