Pakistan is notorious for blocking websites. It has banned more than 4,000 websites for what it considers objectionable material. The latest was IMDb, Zofeen Ebrahim reports.
Despite a thriving media sector, Bangladesh has seen a surge in violence against journalists. Samira Shackle reports
On the eve of the International Day To End Impunity, we look back at the journalists intimidated, attacked and killed in 2013
The rules India makes for its online users are highly significant – for not only will they apply to 1 in 6 people on earth in the near future as more Indians go online, but as the country emerges as a global power they will shape future debates over freedom of expression online.
This paper has shown that despite its lively democracy, strong tradition of press freedom and political debates, India is in many ways struggling to find the right balance between freedom of expression online and other concerns such as security.
International summits and fora over the next two years will be critical in determining the internet’s future.
Key concerns in assessing online freedom of expression in India are the barriers to accessing the internet itself.
Recent revelations in the Hindu have raised concerns over the extraordinary extent of domestic surveillance online, without any legal and procedural framework to protect privacy.
The criminalisation of online speech in India is of concern as the authorities have prosecuted legitimate political comment online and personal views expressed on social media.
Since 2003, the institutional structure of internet censorship and filtering has centred on the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT), a department of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology that serves as a nodal agency for accepting and reviewing requests from a designated pool of government officials to block access to specific websites.