A judge from the Brazilian state of São Paulo has barred a protester from an allegedly illegal construction site or even posting about it on Facebook. It’s the latest in a string of rulings targeting social media in the country. Rafael Spuldar reports
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Caught in the web: how free are we online? June 10, 2013
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GLOBAL
Blogs still aid global freedom of expression
While blogging has existed for more than a decade, WordPress, the software that runs millions of blogs and websites, celebrated its 10th anniversary. The free service has made it simple for anyone to share their views. (DW)
AUSTRALIA
Freedom of speech our basic right
SINCE October last year, I have been regularly warned that “dissent” against the views and interests of the State Government would jeopardise the riverfront funding, create dangerous “unintended consequences” in vaguely-defined ways, and even cause the government to appoint an administrator to strip council of legal and administrative powers. (Sunraysia Daily)
More Australian government departments admit censoring websites
A national security agency has used federal powers to block Australian access to websites, in the latest development surrounding revived fears of internet censorship. (Financial Review)
BRAZIL
Brazilian court gags protester in latest social media ruling
A judge from the Brazilian state of São Paulo has barred a protester from an allegedly illegal construction site or even posting about it on Facebook. It’s the latest in a string of rulings targeting social media in the country. (Index on Censorship)
IRAN
As Iran’s Presidential Election Approaches, Iranian Journalists Live In Fear
As Iran’s June presidential election approaches, Iranian authorities, as a precautionary measure, have intensified their crackdown on journalists. (International Business Times)
NORWAY
Norwegian Newspaper Dagbladet Sparks Outrage with ‘Blood Libel’ Cartoon
Norwegian newspaper, Dagbladet, has sparked outrage after publishing a cartoon “blood libel” Tuesday. Norway’s third largest newspaper, published the cartoon, in which a modestly dressed woman can be seen holding a blood soaked book and telling law enforcement officers: “Mistreating? No this is tradition, an important part of our belief”! (The Algemeiner)
PAKISTAN
Promoting culture: Artists want clear policy, freedom of expression
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has won the elections and now people are wondering whether or not they will deliver on all that they promised in their manifesto and how. (The Express Tribune)
RUSSIA
Economist Sergei Guriev flees Russia
Sergei Guriev leaves after being questioned by state investigators amid clampdown on groups critical of Vladimir Putin.
(The Guardian)
UNITED KINGDOM
Index responds to Theresa May comments
Theresa May’s comments on the Andrew Marr Show have lead to a round of speculation around the actions that the Home Secretary will take in the wake of Woolwich, especially in regard to the shelved Communications Data Bill. (Index on Censorship)
UNITED STATES
Iowa Community College to Pay $14,000 to Settle Free Speech Lawsuit
An Iowa community college will pay nearly $14,000 to settle a free-speech lawsuit filed by a student who was barred from distributing fliers criticizing a conference on gay youth. (KCRG.com)
Conservative Media Predicted Obama’s First-Amendment Scandals
The Obama administration’s free-speech scandals of today were repeatedly and accurately predicted by conservative pundits during the 2008 election. Obama’s first presidential campaign launched a series of novel and troubling assaults on its critics, leading many conservatives to warn that both the press and political speech would come under attack should Obama be elected president. Some of the predictions about Obama made by conservative writers in 2008 seem uncannily on-the-mark today. (National Review Online)
How Did Facebook Let Rape Speech Go Unpoliced for So Long?
As of today, Facebook officially no longer allows the pages “Violently Raping Your Friend Just for Laughs” and “Kicking your Girlfriend in the Fanny because she won’t make you a Sandwich” to exist on its social network, and — what do you know? — it only took a well publicized media campaign and angry advertisers to do it. In a message to its users, Facebook has outlined a new policy for dealing with violent and hateful speech to better deal with — though, not outright ban — this kind of “distasteful humor,” which, of course, begs the question: How come Facebook wasn’t doing anything about this in the first place? (The Atlantic)
School Rules and a Twitter “Social Media Riot” or Student Free Speech?
A graduating high school senior finished a 3-day suspension on Wednesday for creating a Twitter hashtag about a budget controversy, but the upstate New York case continues to play out in social media. (Huffington Post)
Colorado county limits free speech to a remote, tiny area around its buildings
With much of Colorado embroiled in a debate about the Second Amendment, one county has decided to ruffle feathers over the First. (The Daily Caller)
The Kochs’ expansive power: PBS donations, censorship, bidding for the Tribune Company
When only six corporations own all of the media in America, who controls the narrative? Are we even a part of the conversation? Now the only bastion of “public programming,” Public Broadcasting Service, looks like it is not so independent of corporate control after all. Big money is also trying to get their corrupt paws on the Tribune Company but those who want to protect a free press are fighting to stop it. (All Voices)
LePage says Medicaid expansion pressure, Democrats’ ‘censorship’ starts in Washington
Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday railed against an expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Maine, calling it a disturbing national trend of damaging federal mandates. LePage also linked what he called censorship he has experienced in the past two weeks to a pattern of the same at the national level, suggesting that citizens go home and arm themselves if it continues. (Bangor Daily News)
Comcast and Verizon’s Phony Free-Speech Claim
Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit wrote this week that the First Amendment shields Comcast Corp. from Congress’s authority to ensure the free flow of information across the basic network connections it provides. (Bloomberg)
Theresa May’s comments on the Andrew Marr Show have lead to a round of speculation around the actions that the Home Secretary will take in the wake of Woolwich, especially in regard to the shelved Communications Data Bill.
Home Secretary Theresa May appeared on the Andrew Marr Show. See the video. (Photo: BBC)
Kirsty Hughes, Chief Executive of Index on Censorship said:
“May is using Woolwich as an excuse to argue for bringing back a totally disproportionate measure of population-wide data collection that no democracy should countenance. The law already allows for those inciting violence to be prosecuted. The best way to contest hate speech is with more speech not less speech. The government shouldn’t be creating lists of who should and shouldn’t appear on TV.”
May told Marr on Sunday, “we need to see if there are additional steps we should be taking to prevent radicalisation”.
May told the BBC One host that the government would be looking at banning orders, as well as the role of Ofcom.
“There is no doubt that people are able to watch things through the internet that can lead to radicalisation,” she said.
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Think you have what it takes to be published by Index on Censorship? Here’s your chance to find out. Enter our blogging contest for a chance to win £100. More >>>
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Caught in the web: how free are we online? June 10, 2013
The internet: free open space, wild wild west, or totalitarian state? However you view the web, in today’s world it is bringing both opportunities and threats for free expression. More >>>
AUSTRALIA
ANU censorship fans the flames of Islamophobia
The Australian National University’s decision to censor an infographic satirising Islam in an online edition of Woroni (the ANU’s newspaper) has had the inadvertent effect of promoting more Islamophobia than the image itself. (Crikey)
CHINA
Beating the Censorship of China’s Great Firewall with Raspberry Pi
Chinese internet censorship can be a pain in the ass. While it’s easy enough to circumvent with a good VPN, it’s tough to bring your VPN with you wherever you go; even if you install its client on all your own devices you won’t have it at friends houses or on public computers, and you’ve got to open the client and connect on each device separately. (Tech in Asia)
EGYPT
Egyptian teacher faces jail for allegedly insulting Muhammad
An Egyptian Christian primary school teacher has gone into hiding after pupils accused her of blasphemy. Shahira Amin reports. (Index on Censorship)
TURKEY
Fazil Say Speaks Out After Sentencing, Worries About Freedom Of Speech In Turkey
The world-renowned Turkish pianist, Fazil Say, who was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence in April for insulting Islam in a series of tweets, is still talking out. (International Business Times)
UGANDA
Police close Uganda media outlets
Journalists and activists in Uganda are standing up against a government they accuse of preventing free speech. Two newspaper offices are being occupied by police, a week after they were shut down. Radio stations have also been taken off the air. Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb reports from Kampala. (Al Jazeera)
UNITED KINGDOM
Difficult balance between free speech and stopping extremists, says Cable
Following calls to tackle hate speech at universities, Business Secretary Vince Cable said there was a “very difficult balance to strike” between protecting free speech and stopping extremists inciting violence. (ITV)
Censorship and over-simplification: the problems of the Lose the Lads’ Mags campaign
The potential censorship ramifications of the campaign are huge, and it also misses the opportunity to create productive dialogue around gender and desire, argues Nichi Hodgson.
(New Statesman)
One application made to Parades Commission for G8 protest march
JUST one application has been to the Parades Commission for a protest march against the G8 summit in Fermanagh next month. (News Letter)
Allan Massie: Free speech cannot become poison
With every opinion comes responsibility, talk of radical imams and attacking mosques demands that we police ourselves, writes Allan Massie. There is a problem about free speech. People demand it for themselves and for those with whom they agree, but many would deny it to those whose opinions offend them. (Scotsman)
UNITED STATES
Governor Rick Perry Vetoes Texas S.B. 346
Texas Governor Rick Perry heard conservatives’ concerns loud and clear and has vetoed Texas S.B. 346, the bill sponsored by Texas Republican State Senator Kel Seliger of Amarillo that, had Perry allowed it to become law, would have created the kind of intrusive campaign disclosure requirements in Texas that establishment free speech opponents in Congress could only dream of. (ConservativeHQ.com)
Groups call US Justice Department actions ‘appalling’
A group of organisations sent a letter on 24 May to US Attorney General Eric Holder demanding a full and transparent report on the Department of Justice’s secret investigations into journalists and whistleblowers.
(Index on Censorship)
Does Freedom of Speech Conflict with Freedom of Religion?
This is a provocative question, of course, or at least it is seemingly everywhere in the world but the United States. In just the last three years, the Supreme Court has protected highly offensive funeral protests, violent video games, animal “crush” videos, and a host of other types of expression. (CATO Institute)
Student group: Sexual-harassment guideline threatens free speech
A national student organization says a new federal guideline aimed at preventing sexual harassment threatens free speech, a claim the federal Department of Education rejects. (Sentinel and Enterprise)
Is the Supreme Court Giving Corporations More Free-Speech Rights Than the Rest Of Us?
Deceptively straightforward, the First Amendment’s declaration that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech” has long frustrated judicial efforts to balance civil liberty and social well-being. Further complicating matters, the U.S. Supreme Court routinely shifts its approach to free expression with the ideology of its membership. (Policy Mic)
Resident says ban on his ‘bullet vote’ sign violates his freedom of speech
A Rhode Island man is irate with town officials after he says town police officers tore his campaign signs off telephone poles but left other illegal signs up. (The Valley Breeze)
VENEZUELA
Opposition rejects censorship six years after the closure of RCTV
Representatives of different Venezuelan opposition parties expressed on Monday their concern about the escalation of censorship and persecution against the media by the Venezuelan Government. The statements came against the backdrop of the sixth anniversary of the shut down of private TV network RCTV. (El Universal)