The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) and it's editor Hugo Restall have been found guilty of defaming Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsein Loong, and his father Lee Kuan Yew. The summary judgement was made without the case going to trial, in...
Raja Petra Kamaruddin, editor of Malaysia Today, is to be detained for two years under Malaysia's Internal Security Act. Read more here
The furore over Michael Reiss’s comments on creationism signify a worrying tendency that is bad for academic freedom and for science, says Steve Fuller On 16 September, Michael Reiss (pictured) resigned from his post as director of education at the...
Hammaad Munshi has been sentenced to two years for downloading jihadist materials, the latest conviction under the Terrorism Act 2000. In an article in the current issue of Index on Censorship, human rights and criminal lawyer Imran Khan argues...
Italian satirist Sabina Guzzanti will not face charges over alleged insults of Pope Benedict XVI. At a political rally in July, Guzzanti had joked that the Pope would go to Hell when he died, where he would be harassed by 'poofter devils'. Italian...
Well-known blogger Syed Azidi Syed Abdul Aziz, also known as Kickdefella, was arrested at his home on 17 September under the Sedition Act. The arrest came after he posted blog entries in which he severely criticised the country’s political and...
Four men appeared in court in Northern Ireland on 16 September to face charges relating to the 2001 murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan. Neil Hyde and Nigel William Leckey were accused of shooting him dead, while Robin Andrew King and...
Channels TV was shut down by Nigerian security services on 16 September, after running a story claiming the president would be resigning due to health reasons. The government claims the story is untrue. News Agency of Nigeria, which had first...
Blogger and journalist Ziad El Heni last week filed a lawsuit against the Tunisian Internet Agency for blocking the social networking website Facebook. He sees the blocking, which took place on 18 August, as a violation of his rights to freedom of...
Tesco has dropped its legal action against the Guardian after the newspaper published a front-page apology and assented to paying Tesco’s damages to a charity of its choice, as well as its costs. The apology was also published on the Guardian’s...
Index on Censorship magazine looks back at the historic landmarks for free speech and examines the current obstacles.
Four employees of privately-owned TV station Al Sharqiya were murdered on 13 September in the northern city of Mosul. Three journalists, Musab al Azawi, Ahmed Salem and Ihab Maad, along with driver Qaidar Suleiman, were kidnapped by gunmen at...