While even the most tyrannical regime will pay lip service to free speech, it is a right that is constantly denied There are two bedrock civil liberties without which the very idea of civil liberty is empty. They are freedom of speech and due...
Police threats to use anti-terror powers, forcing Irish reporter Suzanne Breen to hand over materials relating to dissident republican groups are an affront to journalistic ethics and free expression, says Anthony McIntyre On Monday of last week a...
To stop people entering Britain because of what they may say while here is based on the concept of pre-emptive sanction says Padraig Reidy Dyab Abou Jahjah, a founder of the Arab European League, came to London from Belgium at the end of March to...
The Obama regime may be reaching out to Raúl Castro, but it is unlikely any real reform will emerge for ordinary Cubans, writes Ena Lucía Portela The recent surprise dismissals of a number of well-known apparatchiks of the Castro regime, including...
The Irish government's plan to introduce blasphemy legislation may seem a retrograde step, but it is part of a broader global trend, writes Padraig Reidy In March of this year, a young Afghan journalist, Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, was sentenced to 20...
Only the powerful benefit from a muzzled media. A free, sometimes scurrilous press is what keeps the spirit of inquiry alive says Sir Ken Macdonald QC After Richard Desmond's cruel and inexcusable campaign against Kate and Gerry McCann, most people...
Thirty years on, the Williams Committee Report still provides a better framework for film classification than the lamentable Obscene Publications Act, says Julian Petley Thirty years ago, a Home Office committee chaired by Bernard Williams produced...
Advertising software company Phorm’s legality is being questioned by the European Commission. Bill Thompson explains. The law obliging Internet service providers to keep records of email exchanges and website visits so that the police and other...
Zubeida Mustafa examines the Pakistani media's response to the arrests of eleven Pakistani students now facing deportation from the UK At a time when the media in Pakistan has its hands full with a heated controversy raging on the government’s...
Following the anti-government protests, the Thai government has begun to crack down on the opposition media. Sinfah Tunsarawuth asks if the heavy-handed tactics will incite further chaos. Radio and television stations in Thailand have been warned...