The third annual Freedom Online Conference is taking place in Tunis. Government and business representatives, civil society, academics and net activists are discussing how freedom of expression on the Internet is helping to promote social, cultural and economic development worldwide. Mike Harris collects the highlights
CATEGORY: News and features
As free expression groups meet in Phnom Penh, police target demonstrators
In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for theIFEX General Meeting and Strategy Conference 2013, Index Director of Campaigns and Policy Marek Marczynski reports back on a protest outside the Royal Palace
Egypt takes steps towards addressing sexual harassment
A proposed bill in Egypt outlawing violence against women has now been proposed by the country’s National Council for Women. But is it a step forward in tackling the silence around sexual harassment in the country? Shahira Amin reports
Vladimir Putin and the new defence of the faithful
Russia’s new blasphemy law is censorship under the guise of protection for believers, says Padraig Reidy
Greeks protest public broadcast closure
Antonis Samaras, prime minister and leader of the Greek coalition government, announced that the state TV channel ERT, the equivalent of the BBC, would be shut down from midnight on 11 June. Dawn Foster reports. Plus: Index condemns ERT move
National security should not be used by governments to justify mass surveillance
Index on Censorship, English PEN, Privacy International, Open Rights Group and Article 19 are calling on the Foreign Secretary’s speech to the House of Commons on the GCHQ links to the Prism scandal, we the undersigned condemn the collection and surveillance of British citizens’ online communications and activities through the US Prism programme.
Free speech groups protest violence against Ugandan journalists
Index on Censorship has joined Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) in writing a letter of protest to the country’s president President Yoweri Museveni, after the network’s national coordinator, Geoffrey Wokulira Ssebaggala was attacked and arrested by police
UN report calls for freedom of expression in post-2015 development
Calling for a transformation in the approach to global development that includes a larger role for freedom of expression, the United Nations’ High Level Panel of Eminent Persons released its report Post-2015 Development Agenda report, Milana Knezevic writes
Self-censorship stifling UK artistic expression
Could “snooper’s charter” stop terror attacks?
Some UK politicians have said the murder of a soldier in Woolwich, London this week demonstrates the need for greater surveillance of communications data. But would a “snooper’s charter” really have made a difference? Index asked
Emma Carr of Big Brother Watch and Jamie Bartlett of Demos for their views
