It is nearly 300 years since bookseller Edmund Curll was convicted in 1727 on a charge of obscenity in an English court for his publication of the mildly pornographic Venus in the Cloister or The Nun in Her Smock. Obscenity was thereafter recognised as a crime under common law.
CATEGORY: Europe and Central Asia
Free speech & the law: Public Order
Under the Human Rights Act 1998, police officers must respect people’s right to freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). However, Article 10 of the convention states that restrictions on people’s free expression rights may be justified on the grounds of preventing disorder or crime, protecting public safety and protecting the rights of others
Free speech & the law: Counter Terrorism
Counter-terrorism laws seek to address the application of “violence for political ends”. It is the “political ends” element that makes these laws interact so frequently with free expression rights, as the law tries to clamp down on expressions of sympathy with terrorist organisations and ideologies, as well as any resulting violence.
Charge, attack, restrict: The main ways Turkey silenced journalists in 2019
The three most frequently used means of targeting journalists in Turkey in 2019, according to new analysis by our Monitoring and Advocating for Media Freedom project
Index on Censorship, Reporters Without Borders UK and Transparency International UK urge Azerbaijan to lift journalist’s travel ban
Azerbaijan authorities should lift a travel ban against award-winning investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, UK-based rights groups urged on 15 January.
Urgent reforms needed to protect journalists from vexatious legal threats: Index on Censorship
The UK should make it harder for powerful individuals and companies to bring libel actions or use other vexatious legal threats designed to stifle investigative journalism, Index on Censorship said on Friday.
This Week at Index: Free speech is for me – the class of 2020
Free speech is in danger of being co-opted by extremists. This has led to all sorts of effects on our societies, from “deplatforming” on social media and in debates, to proposed laws on curbing speech which might cause offence. Here at Index, we want to push back against that.
Free Speech is for Me: Class of 2020
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Index calls on Arron Banks to drop SLAPP lawsuit against Carole Cadwalladr
We, the undersigned organisations, welcome today’s judgment on meaning in the case of Arron Banks vs Carole Cadwalladr. The judgment clarified the...
Judge makes preliminary ruling in Carole Cadwalladr libel case (The Guardian)
A judge has issued a preliminary ruling in a libel action against the investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr and warned that broadcasts and...