INDEX EVENTS
18 July New World (Dis)Order: What do Turkey, Russia and Brazil tell us about freedom and rights?
Index, in partnership with the European Council on Foreign Relations, is holding a timely debate on the shifting world order and its impact on rights and freedoms. The event will also launch the latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine, including a special report on the multipolar world.
(More information)

19 July: What surveillance means to YOU
Join us 19 July for a live Google hangout with Index on Censorship as Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Rebecca Mckinnon of Gloval Voices discuss what mass surveillance means to all of us as individuals. Hosted by Padraig Reidy of Index, the hour-long event will delve in the issues around government surveillance of innocent civilians.
(More information)

ASIA
Internet Censorship is Taking Root in Southeast Asia
Every time Le Anh Hung starts to write he thinks of his three young children. The 38-year-old has already been imprisoned twice for blogging about human rights and corruption from his home in Hanoi and lives half-expecting another fateful knock at the door. And yet “I’m not scared,” he says, “I know what I choose to do is risky but I accept the fight.”
(Time)

BRAZIL
Brazil protesters hope for Pope’s backing during visit
Young Brazilians who marched in June to demand more funding for health and education are hoping Pope Francis will back their cause when he visits Rio next week. But organizers ruled out a resumption of the street protests during the pontiff’s week-long stay to attend World Youth Day (WYD), a major Catholic gathering expected to draw 1.5 million people.
(AFP)

CHINA
China says it’ll relax film, TV censorship; directors unimpressed
Chinese authorities said Wednesday they would relax some restrictions on film, TV and radio productions, though the immediate impact of the changes was unclear and several prominent movie directors said they did not believe the reforms were game-changers.
(Los Angeles Times)

ISRAEL
Israel’s Plague of Self-Censorship
The affair surrounding Edward Snowden, former employee of the United States National Security Agency (NSA) who leaked information about NSA surveillance programs, reminded me of a personal story from more than 30 years ago.
(The Times)

LIBERIA
Newspaper Slapped With U.S $1.5 Million Libel Ruling
Liberia’s Supreme Court has ruled that a $1.5 million verdict against the FrontPage Africa newspaper should be enforced.
(All Africa)

UNITED KINGDOM
An unpleasant odour is rising from Northern Ireland’s libel law
The recently passed Defamation Act 2013 will introduce much-needed reform of an area of the law that has become an anachronistic, obscure and unjustifiable fetter on freedom of speech. It comes into force later this year. But not in Northern Ireland. The reluctance of Northern Ireland politicians to adopt the 2013 Act will, as a libel lawyer would say, lower them in the estimation of right-thinking people.
(The Times)

UNITED STATES
Federal Campus Sexual Harassment Policy Draws Free Speech Concerns
The federal government is facing pressure from civil-liberties advocates to back down from a policy meant to curb sexual harassment at colleges and universities — just as sexual-assault survivors demanded in a protest this week that the Education Department do more to punish colleges that fail to address campus assaults.
(Huffington Post)

Student Who Disagrees With Homosexuality Wins Free Speech Lawsuit Against Teacher
A federal district judge ruled in favor of a Michigan student who was removed from the classroom by his teacher for expressing his religious beliefs against homosexuality. The judge said punishing the student for his freedom of expression violated his First Amendment rights.
(Christian Post)

The Attack on Free Speech and the Press
Over the past three years, we have seen an assault on free speech and freedom of the press by those in power. Campaign finance laws have always been used less as a restriction on money in politics and more as a restriction of freedom of speech.
(Texas GOP Vote)

Previous Free Expression in the News posts
July 17 | July 16 | July 15 | July 12 | July 11 | July 10 | July 9 | July 8 | July 5 | July 4