Index on Censorship has joined a coalition of organisations expressing deep concerns over the Vietnamese government’s treatment of human rights activists, who are appealing their harsh sentences for free expression “crimes”.
• Letter to Vietnam’s Leaders
The Indian government has been implementing a system to track and access calls, texts and online activities. Mahima Kaul reports from Delhi that the Central Monitoring System will be used by tax authorities and India’s National Investigation Authority to fight terror-related crimes. But digital freedom activists are worried.
We are a consortium of NGOs and individuals— ARTICLE 19, Association For Progressive Communications, Access Now, Bolo Bhi, Centre For Democracy & Technology, Centre For Peace & Development Initiatives, Christopher Parsons,Chunri...
Election fever has completely gripped the Indian media. Though general elections are scheduled for 2014, the news cycle regularly carries rumours of early elections every time another corruption scandal breaks, Mahima Kaul reports from New Delhi.
Pakistan’s historic election is behind us. Historic because it is the first time a government has completed its term without being ruthlessly axed, toppled by military dictatorship or unelected politicians. But it was also one of its bloodiest.
Related: NGOs call to investigate and disable FinFisher’s espionage equipment in Pakistan
The discovery of a colossal financial scam at a company in India’s West Bengal state is exposing the underbelly of the relationship between politicians and media owners in the world’s largest democracy, Mahima Kaul reports.
The discovery of a colossal financial scam at a company in India’s West Bengal state is exposing the underbelly of the relationship between politicians and media owners in the world’s largest democracy, Mahima Kaul reports.
The Chinese government's two main bodies of censorship, SARFT (State Administration for Radio, Film, and Television) and GAPP (General Administration for Press and Publications), are to merge and become one super administration. Although some...
Some of India’s most prominant internet writers, researchers and policy analysts came together in Bangalore on 9 April to discuss “Strengthening Freedom of Expression on the Internet in India”, organised by the Internet Democracy Project. The subject has been intermittently making headlines in India, with a number of politically motivated arrests made under the Information Technology Act’s controversial Section 66a. Causing more confusion, in 2011, the Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Kapil Sibal, made headlines by asking social media intermediaries to take down “objectionable” content. At the time, the content in question seemed to be mainly objectionable to to the government itself. The content in question seemed to be mainly objectionable to the government alone. This caused a huge public uproar, […]
Since the internet was introduced in 1995 in India’s major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkatta, it has steadly grown in urban areas. By 1998, India has its first Internet Service Provider, Sify (later sold for $155 million). By 2001, India has its first crime branch. By 2005, the country had over 200,000 internet cafes. Facebook arrived in 2006, and in 2009, the government drafted policy on Indian language internet domain names. As individuals in cities stock up on phones, laptops and tablets, accessing free wifi at more and more public places, the question of digital access in rural India still remains. Over the last decade, The National e-Governance Plan sought to bridge this gap by establishing a Common Service Center in […]