In India, the state and private petitioners have equally exploited India’s penal code to harass, censor or silence individuals. Ram Mashru reports
India: Turning back the clock on freedom of expression
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CATEGORY: India
Penguin India’s pulping of controversial title roils authors
Indian authors and columnists have condemned Penguin India’s decision to pulp all remaining copies of American author Wendy Doniger’s controversial book. Mahima Kaul reports
India: Parliament TV blacks out during debate over controversial bill
For the first time in its history, the lower house of Indian parliament passed a law as important as creating a new state – by reorganising Andhra Pradesh into two states; Andhra Pradesh and Telangana – away from the media glare and the public eye. Mahima Kaul reports
India enters the sousveillance age
Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s erstwhile chief minister, gained popularity among ordinary citizens because of his tough anti-corruption stand. His antics and strategies to grab media attention didn’t disappoint either. Mahima Kaul reports
Delhi High Court champions a SLAPP suit
Court’s gag order in sexual harassment case is an assault on freedom of the press, says Saurav Datta
Penguin’s disappointing surrender over Hindus book
Penguin India has agreed to withdraw Wendy Doniger’s award-winning book The Hindus: An Alternative History, and to destroy remaining copies within six months, writes Salil Tripathi
India’s courts caught in pornophobia
The Indian Supreme Court’s observations while hearing a petition in which online pornography is blamed for of the “epidemic” of rape and sexual violence is redolent of the pornophobia which had gripped the puritanical English legal system in the Victorian era, writes Saurav Datta
Is India’s biometric benefits database trampling privacy?
India’s laws and controls over its massive collection, storage and use of biometric data are hugely deficient, writes Ram Mashru
Indian films at mercy of new censor board CEO — and his five-year-old daughter
The new CEO of India’s censor board has described his objection to some of India’s recent blockbusters based on the reactions of his wife and five year old daughter. Mahima Kaul reports
Did the Uttar Pradesh government ban two channels for being too critical?
It is almost impossible to believe, but the government of India’s largest and most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, seems to have taken the most popular English news channel, Times Now, off the air for criticizing it, Mahima Kaul reports