Ali Pour Soleiman, a blogger and teacher was arrested in Iran last week according to HRANA, the human rights activists news agency. He was a member of the Teacher's Association wrote for Sokhane Molem a teacher's blog. The charges he faces are...

Syrian blogger Amina Abdallah abducted
Three armed men seized a Syrian blogger and forced her into a car yesterday evening (6 June), her cousin recorded the incident on her website. Amina Araf, a Syrian-American dual citizen who writes under the pen name, Amina Abdallah, discusses...

Justice for Georgia’s journalists
What should the Tblisi authorities do in response to the police assaults of reporters covering anti-government protests at the end of May? Boyko Boev reports

Prime cuts
UK authorities have announced an outright ban on The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence). But how do censors make these decisions? Murray Perkins is a film examiner who classifies hard-core porn. He spoke to Index about what it takes to make the grade
Canada: Student suspended for satirical YouTube videos
A Canadian twelfth grade student has been suspended for posting satirical videos on his own private YouTube account. The animations, criticising aspects of the American government and the behaviour of large corporations and were considered by the...
Index on the Big Questions
Index on the Big Questions

Pakistan: “We will firmly hold the banner advocating freedom of expression”
The killing of Syed Saleem Shahzad has highlighted the precarious situation for Pakistan’s brave journalists.
Daud Khan Khattak reports
UN rapporteur calls for end to criminal defamation laws
The United Nations special rapporteur for free expression Frank La Rue has called for the abolition of criminal defamation laws. Guatemalan lawyer La Rue also condemned the use of “national security” reasons to curb free expression: In a report...
Iranian activist, Haleh Sahabi, dies in a fight with authorities
Iranian activist, Haleh Sahabi, 56, died yesterday (1 June) after a scuffle with Iranian security personnel during her father's funeral procession. Sahabi died in hospital after apparently suffering a heart attack. The regime tightly controls...
ACLU demands US high schools remove gay internet censors
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reports Gwinnett County schools in Georgia employ a filter, Blue Coat, that blocks access to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender site and classifies them as sexually explicit or pornographic. The ACLU...
King Abdullah orders release of Jordanian journalist
Jordanian journalist, Alaa Fazza, was released from prison Wednesday, on the orders of King Abdullah II yesterday (1 June), the country’s independence day. Fazza was been detained 14 days by a military court on charges that he had accused the...
Russia: Suspect arrested in Anna Politkovskaya murder
Russian authorities arrested Rustam Makhmudov in Chechyna on Tuesday (31 May). He is suspected of shooting Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya to death in 2006. Politkovskaya was one of the fiercest critics of now Chechyan President Ramzan...