Brazil has banned broadcasters from showing programmes that poke fun at the country's presidential candidates. Ridiculing the candidates could result in a fine or even licence suspension. Brazilian producers and comedians intend to fight the ban,...
Conrad Black has been given clearance to sue six former colleagues for libel in Canada. The defendants, who include Hollinger International Inc directors and a vice-president, are based in the US. But the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled...
Carlos Flores Borja, winner of the Guardian Journalism award at this year's Index on Censorship Free Expression Awards Ceremony, has been told that he will not be allowed relaunch of Amazonian community radio station Radio La Voz de Bagua, in spite...
Rapper Noize MC, who was jailed for 10 days in Volgograd after mocking local police in a song and an improvised rap at a festival, has released a new song criticising the police. Launched soon after the artist left jail last week, and entitled "10...
The deputy director of a radio station in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland in north east Somalia has been sentenced to six years in prison following a court case from which the media were banned. Abdifatah Jama Mire was given the sentence...
The Indian government has told RIM, the Canadian manufaturers of BlackBerry mobile phones to either provide access to encryption or face a ban from 31 August onwards. The Indian government says the BES and messenger services pose a grave security...
The Scottish golfer and Ryder Cup captain, Colin Montgomerie, has successfully won a court injunction against details of his private life being exposed. Montgomerie won the order against a tabloid newspaper in July, but the details have only...
The YouTube sensation 'Newport State of Mind', a parody of the Jay-Z and Alicia Keys song 'Empire State of Mind', has been banned. Initial reports stated that EMI music or EMI publishing were behind the ban, however, recent accounts state that it...
The Belarusian government has continued with its crackdown on opposition groups by arresting Mikhas Bashura on charges of forgery. Bashura, who denies the charges, is an outspoken member of the Tell the Truth campaign. In May 2010 three of his...
Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei has claimed that he was attacked by plainclothes policemen. Ai, who was nominated for an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award in 2009, says he and an assistant were on their way to report a previous assault when...