The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland QC, has announced that she has referred the case of UK resident Binyam Mohammed to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The ex-Guantanamo detainee claims that an MI5 agent, known as ‘witness B’, was complicit...
The United Nations Human Rights Council today passed a resolution aimed at restricting criticism of religion, or 'religious defamation'. Roy W Brown examines why the UN is putting protection of ideas above freedom of expression Slowly but...
Britain's libel laws are a malign force far beyond just celebrity journalism. Radical reform is overdue, writes Jo Glanville This article originally appeared in the Guardian Libel laws remain the most significant daily chill on free speech in the...
Editor's note: Index on Censorship is committed to facilitating open and vigorous debate. We will endeavour to correct factual inaccuracies wherever they occur. An article posted on our website on 17 March inadvertently accused the Jewish Chronicle...
Google said that its YouTube video-sharing website had been blocked in China. Google said it did not know why the site had been blocked, but a report by the official news agency Xinhua said that supporters of the Dalai Lama had fabricated a video...
The UK government has said that communications over social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace could be monitored in an effort to tackle crime and terrorism. Read more here
Newly released documents reveal the very real need for an Iraq inquiry, says Chris Ames As MPs once again debate calls for a full inquiry into the Iraq war, new evidence shows the extent to which intelligence experts raised concerns about the...
Sir Ken Macdonald QC, Former Director of Public Prosecutions, has joined the board of Index on Censorship. Sir Ken, a co-founder of leading human rights chambers Matrix, was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2003 to 2008. He was knighted in...
A parliamentary report published by the Joint Committee on Human Rights has warned that counter-terrorism laws are being abused by police in their dealing with protests. Legislation including the Terrorism Act has allowed a heavy-handed approach to...
Attempts by Barclays to shut down discussion of its practices have backfired and exposed the attitudes that contributed to the financial crisis, writes Padraig Reidy There are a few things needed for capitalism to function: chiefly, the free flow...
This letter was published in The Times today Sir, On Monday Parliament will have a unique opportunity to repeal the arcane and antiquated offences of seditious libel and criminal defamation. These two crimes date from an era when governments...
Writer and journalist Abou Abbass Ould Brahim, the editor of the news website Taqadoumy, was released today after being held for three days in the Mauritanian capital. The website was allowed to reopen 24 hours after the Nouakchott prosecutor's...