On 18 November, journalist JS Tissainayagam, currently on trial before the High Court under the country’s Terrorism Act, was moved to the notorious Magazine prison in Colombo after more than 150 days in detention. He had not been informed of the...
As Google, Yahoo and Microsoft sign up to a ground-breaking code of conduct, will this change the way they do business with repressive regimes? Leslie Harris, who was a key player in forging the agreement, explains what it means for free speech....
Amare Aregawi, editor for Ethiopian weekly the Reporter, was arrested on 22 August in connection with a libel case lodged by the Dashen brewery in Gondar. The lawsuit was filed following the publication of an article about two former brewery...
Two Venezuelan radio stations were shut down, their equipment seized and their offices sealed by military personnel on 18 August. Both stations, Rumbera Network 101.5 FM, and Llanera 91.3 FM in the Guárico province, were raided by soldiers. The...
Freedom of assembly is under threat in Kyrgystan after President Kurmanbek Bakiev signed an amended law on the rights of citizens on 6 August. The amendment makes it mandatory to register public gatherings twelve days in advance, and prohibits...
Dissident Syrian freed Syrian dissident Aref Dalila has been freed by Syrian authorities seven years into his ten-year jail term. The economist was jailed in 2002 on charges of inciting armed rebellion, spreading false information and trying to...
As the Games begin in Beijing, Index publishes a roundup of arrests, detentions and surveillance since January –-- a reminder that China has yet to meet its Olympic challenge of harmony and openness. JANUARY 24 January: Four journalists with German...
Websites will be subject to further restrictions under the country’s new media law, passed by President Lukashenko on 5 August. The law stipulates that online content will now be subject to the same restrictions as the print press. The law also...
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Alexander Solzhenitsyn made an appeal to the writers of the world. Index was proud to be the first publication to print his call to action in English and marks his death last weekend with the following excerpt...
Najam Sethi, chief editor of Pakistan's Daily Times, received death threats from militant group the Islamic Taliban Movement for publishing a cartoon in one of the paper’s sister publications, Aaj Kal. The cartoon depicted the leader of a radical...
Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz faces the possibility of a grand jury subpoena despite a Californian federal judgment supporting his right to protect confidential sources on 25 July. Gertz refused to answer questions about confidential sources...
Following a ten-year court battle, on 22 July the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2007 lower court decision that the Child Online Protection Act is unconstitutional. The legislation would have forced websites featuring adult material to...