GLOBAL
UN report slams government surveillance
The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Frank La Rue delivered a report to the Human Rights Council outlining how state and corporate surveillance undermine freedom of expression and privacy. (Index on Censorship)

GREECE
Kostas Vaxevanis faces fresh trial
The Greek journalist who published the infamous “Lagarde list” of Swiss bank accounts could face two years in jail for breaching privacy. (Index on Censorship)

INDIA
HC directive on film posters a springboard for double censorship
The Kerala High Court’s directive to the State Police Chief to take up investigation of cases registered for indecent representation of women could end up as a double censorship, it is felt. (The Hindu)

Defying censorship, the reporter who exposed the killings
Brahma Chellaney exposed the killings of young unarmed Sikh youths for a foreign news agency, and faced severe government harassment (The Hindu)

IRAN
Regime’s media slam mullahs censorship
The Iranian regime’s own media has spoken out in protest at the censoring and restrictions imposed on their work. More than one hundred media staff covering next week’s election have released a statement criticising the oppressive scrutiny of their news websites, including reporters from the state-run Fars news agency. (National Council of Resistance of Iran)

IRELAND
Media must be free to ‘be arrow and not target’
THE first President Roosevelt coined the term “bully pulpit” when describing the less obvious charms of the American chief magistracy. (Irish Independent)

JAMAICA
Free Speech And Gay Rights
Boyne: Tolerance does not mean acceptance. And this is my problem with some gay people: … Any rejection of homosexuality as morally wrong is seen as homophobia. That is nonsense and an abuse of language to shut down conversation. (The Gleaner)

MALTA
‘Adult plays should be protected from police’
When censorship laws were relaxed last year, theatre buffs rejoiced thinking that no play would suffer the same fate as Anthony Neilson’s Stitching. (Times of Malta)

SINGAPORE
Singapore Bloggers Protest Licensing Rules for News Websites
More than 2,000 Singaporeans gathered at a downtown park to protest a regulation requiring websites that regularly publish news on the city state to be licensed. (Jakarta Globe)

UNITED STATES
Former FCC Chairman: Let’s Test an Emergency Ad Hoc Network
As the Boston Marathon bombings unfolded, thousands of anxious people in the region pulled out their mobile phones to connect with friends and family—and found that calls couldn’t be placed or received. Rumors that officials had shut down these mobile networks for security reasons weren’t true. The system was simply overloaded at a time when people needed it most.
(MIT Technology Review)

Produced By Conference: Death Threats, But No Network Censorship For ‘Walking Dead’ Execs
The Walking Dead exec producer Gale Anne Hurd admitted this afternoon that one of the hazards of her job is receiving death threats from the rabid fan base of smash hit AMC zombie drama when it dares to kill off a character. “That’s one of the dirty little secrets of social media,” she admitted.
(Deadline Hollywood)

School deliberately cuts valedictorian’s mic mid-speech
A US high school valedictorian had his microphone deliberately switched off in the middle of his graduation speech because the school had not approved what he was saying.
(9 News)

Freedom of speech under attack by Islamophobes in Tennessee
I’ve noted before that Pamela Geller Does Not Understand Freedom of Speech when she found fault with American Muslims and others for denouncing her hate ads. This she called an attempt to “impose blasphemy restrictions on free speech”.
(The American Muslim)

Do news organizations hurt free speech when they ban offensive words?
From now on, no one will be described in an Associated Press news story as an “illegal immigrant,” “illegal alien,” “illegal,” or as “undocumented.”
(Denver Post)

OPINION: Pro-Palestinian groups don’t respect free speech on campus
College is meant to be a place where free speech comes alive. Different viewpoints are supposed to be welcome and intellectual diversity celebrated.
(Campus Reform)

Disputed ads are protected speech
The ad we placed on city buses quoting Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu comparing what Palestinians endure to South African apartheid was meant to educate the public about Israeli and U.S. policies.
(San Francisco Examiner)

Conservatives as Defenders of the Media
The conservative pundit Glenn Beck took the lectern at a conference center on Manhattan’s East Side last Thursday to accept the Freedom of Speech Award for his commentary on TheBlaze television network and his syndicated radio show.
(The New York Times)

VIETNAM
Vietnamese Directors Speak Out On CHO LON and Censorship
The banning of the Nguyen brothers’ Cho Lon caused extreme rage in Vietnam yesterday. And not just for filmmakers or film geeks, but all over the country; I haven’t seen anything like this before. Previously banned films came and went quietly, but Cho Lon is now the focus of a national conversation. (Twitch)