GLOBAL
Q&A: “Media Concentration Is an Attack on Democracy”
“We have to understand that information, above all else, is a social service. If we lose sight of that dimension we begin to regulate it as merchandise, but the state has many other obligations, such as to guarantee freedom,” said Frank La Rue.
(European Daily Express)

AFRICA
MFWA Highlights Major Threats to Press Freedom in West Africa
Armed conflicts, violent activities of fundamentalist groups and drug cartels and general intolerance for free expression among a number of governments have been highlighted as major threats to the advancement of press freedom in the West African region.
(AllAfrica.com)

AUSTRALIA
Success for Vivid but lingering fears over censorship
Vivid festival has ended as a spectacular success with a record-breaking attendance in Sydney, but behind the scenes the relationship between the popular event and photojournalism festival Reportage has soured amid accusations of censorship and breaches of contract.
(The Guardian)

IRAN
Hacker Says Iranian Censorship Can Be Bypassed
An Israeli hacker says it’s easy to bypass the tight Iranian government censorship wrapped around media and the Internet as 50 million citizens head for the polls this Friday.
(Arutz Sheva 7)

Iran’s presidential vote not free, fair: UN rights envoy
Iran’s presidential election has been neither free nor fair as Tehran has silenced journalists and opposition leaders in the run up to Friday’s vote, a United Nations human rights investigator said in Spain. Ahmed Shaheed, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, warned in March that he was concerned that the outcome of the election would lack legitimacy because dozens of Iranian journalists were behind bars and hundreds of political prisoners remained in custody.
(Business Recorder)

RUSSIA
New Russian Law Makes Publication of Information on Gay Rights Illegal
On June 11 the Russian parliament passed a bill against “homosexual propaganda” that effectively outlaws gay rights rallies and bans informational or pro-gay rights material from publication in the media or on the Internet. Violators of the law will risk heavy fines and censorship and, in the case of a media outlet, risk being shut down. It had near unanimous support, passing in a 436-to-0 vote, with only one abstention.
(Tech President)

UNITED KINGDOM
LRC keeps up pressure on libel reform
Finance Minister Sammy Wilson’s decision to veto a law to strengthen protections on free speech has been vigorously defended by the DUP, following fresh criticism.
(The Bookseller)

Yesterday, an MP stood up in parliament and threatened a newspaper with censorship. Where’s the outrage?
Imagine if an MP stood up in parliament and told, say, an anarchist magazine to stop publishing cartoons mocking government officials. Imagine if that MP then said that if the magazine didn’t comply with this request, the government would “step in and legislate” in order to physically and brutally prevent it from publishing the offending material. There’d be outrage, right?
(The Telegragh)

DUP defends libel law veto
Finance Minister Sammy Wilson’s decision to veto a law to strengthen protections on free speech has been vigorously defended by the DUP, following fresh criticism.
(News Letter)

Twitter: #FreeSpeech or #EthicalCleansing?
There has been a storm of somewhat overblown hysteria about the US and UK authorities secretly spying on citizens’ private emails and postings on social-media websites. Yet there is far less debate about a much more open attempt to police free speech online in the UK, through the public pursuit, arrest and prosecution of those deemed to have said something offensive or outrageous on Twitter or Facebook.
(Spiked)

UK libel reform fight ‘isn’t over yet’
British scientists should not celebrate victory in their libel reform fight just yet, according to the campaigners who have spent years pushing for change.
(Nature)

UNITED STATES
The worst crimes against the First Amendment
Since 1992, The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression has celebrated the birth and ideals of its namesake by calling attention to those who in the past year forgot or disregarded Jefferson’s admonition that freedom of speech “cannot be limited without being lost.”
(Missoula Independent)

Freedom of Speech Lives On
“Holding Colleges Responsible” is the latest example in a slew of articles – many of them quoting the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education – that are meant to alarm anyone with a voice, and the author’s use of selective quotes out of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights’s response to FIRE only fans the flame.
(Inside Higher Ed)

How Colleges Label Protected Speech as ‘Harassment’–And Why the DOJ and ED Have Made Matters Worse
One would think the Departments of Justice and Education would be mindful of citizens’ constitutional rights. Unfortunately, recent developments fly in the face of that assumption: New regulations from the DOJ and ED significantly harm student and faculty free speech rights.
(Huffington Post)

Ban on “gruesome images” threatens free speech
For those of us who worry about the vitality of free speech in the “land of the free,” the news this week isn’t good. On June 10, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a Colorado appeals court decision banning anti-abortion activists from displaying “gruesome images” of mutilated fetuses that might be seen by children.
(GazetteXtra)

Atheist group sues Orange schools, claiming censorship
An atheist group that distributed pamphlets in 11 Orange County high schools last month filed a lawsuit today against Orange County Public Schools, claiming censorship.
(Orlando Sentinel)

Obscenity is protected free speech, NY attorneys say
A 22-year-old Connecticut man arrested for writing obscenities and “Tyranny” on his speeding ticket payment claims in a federal lawsuit that his free speech rights were violated.
(WHAM 13)

Gov. Rick Perry: ‘Freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion’
Current Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry attacked nonreligious Americans during a signing of the “Merry Christmas” bill this week, insinuating that Americans don’t have the right to be secular.
(Examiner)