A ruling to ban YouTube and three online libraries in the Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur will be enforced on 3 August. The video-sharing website will be blocked because of a nationalist video “Russia for the Russians,” which has been listed as...
CATEGORY: News and features

Turks march against government censorship of the Internet
Web users have stepped away from their keyboards and on to the streets in Istanbul. Yaman Akdeniz reports
Ivory Coast: Nouveau Courrier journalists to be released
Three journalists who were arrested after they published an official government document on corruption were due to be released yesterday. The editor, managing editor and publisher of the Nouveau Courrier d'Abidjan were acquitted of charges relating...
Malaysia: protesters convicted for cow’s head rally
On 27 July, a Selangor court imprisoned a man for a week and fined 11 others after they protested against the construction of a Hindu temple with a severed cow’s head. All 12 pleaded guilty to the charge of “illegal assembly” and were fined 1000...
Pakistan: Permanent Facebook ban sought
The Chairman of Pakistan’s Judicial Activism Panel, Azhar Siddique, has appealed to the Lahore High Court to permanently ban Facebook. The petition was lodged in wake of an “anti-Islam competition,” entitled “Everybody Burn Koran Day,” being hosted...
Burmese Arts Festival fundraiser
Join Index on Censorship on 30 July for an evening of Burmese culture, with exclusive excerpts of new Zarganar film This Prison Where I Live
US Congress passes libel tourism bill
The US Congress has approved a bill aimed at protecting US writers from libel tourists using English courts to pursue defamation claims. The SPEECH (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage) Act now goes to President Obama to be signed into law.
Watch Congressman Steve Cohen speak on the bill:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1wjBFIl66w
UK: First libel supreme court hearing
The first libel case in the new Supreme Court, Joseph v Spiller was heard on 26-27 July. The case concerns Motown tribute act, the Gillettes, who sued after their former agent Jason Spiller posted on his website that the band were not professional...
Wikileaks breaks down the door
The whistleblowers’ website goes mainstream — reconfiguring ideas of journalism, transparency, openness and security in the internet age. Jillian C York reports
Iran: Human rights journalist jailed
Emadden Baghi, an Iranian human rights activist and journalist, has been given a year-long prison sentence and banned from any political activity for five years. He was arrested during anti-government protests in 2009. He faces a second trial...