Time is running out
Think you have what it takes to be published by Index on Censorship? Here’s your chance to find out. Enter our blogging contest for a chance to win £100. More >>>

Index on Censorship Events
Caught in the web: how free are we online? June 10, 2013
The internet: free open space, wild wild west, or totalitarian state? However you view the web, in today’s world it is bringing both opportunities and threats for free expression. More >>>

AUSTRALIA
ANU censorship fans the flames of Islamophobia
The Australian National University’s decision to censor an infographic satirising Islam in an online edition of Woroni (the ANU’s newspaper) has had the inadvertent effect of promoting more Islamophobia than the image itself. (Crikey)

CHINA
Beating the Censorship of China’s Great Firewall with Raspberry Pi
Chinese internet censorship can be a pain in the ass. While it’s easy enough to circumvent with a good VPN, it’s tough to bring your VPN with you wherever you go; even if you install its client on all your own devices you won’t have it at friends houses or on public computers, and you’ve got to open the client and connect on each device separately. (Tech in Asia)

EGYPT
Egyptian teacher faces jail for allegedly insulting Muhammad
An Egyptian Christian primary school teacher has gone into hiding after pupils accused her of blasphemy. Shahira Amin reports. (Index on Censorship)

TURKEY
Fazil Say Speaks Out After Sentencing, Worries About Freedom Of Speech In Turkey
The world-renowned Turkish pianist, Fazil Say, who was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence in April for insulting Islam in a series of tweets, is still talking out. (International Business Times)

UGANDA
Police close Uganda media outlets
Journalists and activists in Uganda are standing up against a government they accuse of preventing free speech. Two newspaper offices are being occupied by police, a week after they were shut down. Radio stations have also been taken off the air. Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb reports from Kampala. (Al Jazeera)

UNITED KINGDOM
Difficult balance between free speech and stopping extremists, says Cable
Following calls to tackle hate speech at universities, Business Secretary Vince Cable said there was a “very difficult balance to strike” between protecting free speech and stopping extremists inciting violence. (ITV)

Censorship and over-simplification: the problems of the Lose the Lads’ Mags campaign
The potential censorship ramifications of the campaign are huge, and it also misses the opportunity to create productive dialogue around gender and desire, argues Nichi Hodgson.
(New Statesman)

One application made to Parades Commission for G8 protest march
JUST one application has been to the Parades Commission for a protest march against the G8 summit in Fermanagh next month. (News Letter)

Allan Massie: Free speech cannot become poison
With every opinion comes responsibility, talk of radical imams and attacking mosques demands that we police ourselves, writes Allan Massie. There is a problem about free speech. People demand it for themselves and for those with whom they agree, but many would deny it to those whose opinions offend them. (Scotsman)

UNITED STATES
Governor Rick Perry Vetoes Texas S.B. 346
Texas Governor Rick Perry heard conservatives’ concerns loud and clear and has vetoed Texas S.B. 346, the bill sponsored by Texas Republican State Senator Kel Seliger of Amarillo that, had Perry allowed it to become law, would have created the kind of intrusive campaign disclosure requirements in Texas that establishment free speech opponents in Congress could only dream of. (ConservativeHQ.com)

Groups call US Justice Department actions ‘appalling’
A group of organisations sent a letter on 24 May to US Attorney General Eric Holder demanding a full and transparent report on the Department of Justice’s secret investigations into journalists and whistleblowers.
(Index on Censorship)

Does Freedom of Speech Conflict with Freedom of Religion?
This is a provocative question, of course, or at least it is seemingly everywhere in the world but the United States. In just the last three years, the Supreme Court has protected highly offensive funeral protests, violent video games, animal “crush” videos, and a host of other types of expression. (CATO Institute)

Student group: Sexual-harassment guideline threatens free speech
A national student organization says a new federal guideline aimed at preventing sexual harassment threatens free speech, a claim the federal Department of Education rejects. (Sentinel and Enterprise)

Is the Supreme Court Giving Corporations More Free-Speech Rights Than the Rest Of Us?
Deceptively straightforward, the First Amendment’s declaration that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech” has long frustrated judicial efforts to balance civil liberty and social well-being. Further complicating matters, the U.S. Supreme Court routinely shifts its approach to free expression with the ideology of its membership. (Policy Mic)

Resident says ban on his ‘bullet vote’ sign violates his freedom of speech
A Rhode Island man is irate with town officials after he says town police officers tore his campaign signs off telephone poles but left other illegal signs up. (The Valley Breeze)

VENEZUELA
Opposition rejects censorship six years after the closure of RCTV
Representatives of different Venezuelan opposition parties expressed on Monday their concern about the escalation of censorship and persecution against the media by the Venezuelan Government. The statements came against the backdrop of the sixth anniversary of the shut down of private TV network RCTV. (El Universal)