The defection of Chinese writer and dissident Yu Jie last week revealed shocking allegations of torture and beatings more usually associated with rogue American troops in Iraq. Yu, a close friend of imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo, is most...
Political cartoonist Zunar (Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque) appeared at the Kuala Lumpur High Court this week for the first hearing of a civil suit in which he challenges the Malaysian government and police for his arrest and detention on 24 September...
As religious figureheads call to ban Salman Rushdie from a prestigious literature festival in India, Salil Tripathi reports on the country’s “sepulchral silence”
UPDATE: Salman Rushdie pulls out of Indian festival amid assassination fears
A veteran Chinese dissident is facing subversion charges for writing a poem urging people to defend their freedoms. Zhu Yufu was arrested last April for "inciting subversion of state power" but no trial date has yet been set. Authorities decided to...
A number of journalists and bloggers have been released from prison under amnesty in Burma. Hla Hla Win, Ngwe Soe Lin, Win Maw, Sithu Zeya from exile radio and TV station Democratic Voice of Burma, freelance journalists Thant Zin Aung and Zaw Thet...
The Delhi High Court has threatened Facebook and Google with web blackouts, unless they agree to censor objectionable content. Following last month's meetings between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook and the Indian government to discuss...
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been acquitted of charges of sodomy after a two-year court battle. A judge ruled today that DNA evidence used by prosecution was unreliable. Anwar was first prosecuted after a former male aide accused...
A Filipino journalist was murdered on 5 January, local reports suggest he was chased down by unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle. Christopher Guarin, publisher and editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Tatak News Nationwide, died in front of his...
As the number of Confucius Institutes continues to increase, there have been renewed concerns about how these organisations restrict free expression, particularly from among the international community. The centres, which are dedicated to Chinese...
A Tibetan writer has been sentenced to four years in jail by a Chinese court in eastern Tibet. Kalsang Tsultim, also known as Gyitsang Takmik, was first arrested in July 2010 for committing what the Chinese authorities termed "political error." He...