Free expression in the news

03 Jun 13 | In the News

INDEX REPORT
Taking the offensive – defending artistic freedom of expression in the UK

Report Contents: Summary | Introduction | What is artistic freedom of expression? | What are the limits to freedom of expression? | Institutional self-censorship | Reinforcing support for artistic freedom of expression | Conclusion | Appendix I: Audience Feedback and Statistics | Appendix II: Conference Programme | Appendix III: Cases of Censored Artwork | Artist Videos | Full report in PDF

INDEX EVENTS
10 June: Caught in the web: how free are we online?
The internet: free open space, wild wild west, or totalitarian state? However you view the web, in today’s world it is bringing both opportunities and threats for free expression.

23 June: Turkey vs the UK: what’s the score on free expression?
The Turkish Writers Football Club is coming to London to play the England Writers Team and the pressure is on. But it’s not just about sport. Index on Censorship is grabbing the chance to bring both sides together to debate the state of free expression in both countries.

GLOBAL
UN report calls for freedom of expression in post-2015 development
Calling for a transformation in the approach to global development that includes a larger role for freedom of expression, the United Nations’ High Level Panel of Eminent Persons released its report Post-2015 Development Agenda report, Milana Knezevic writes. (Index on Censorship)

Cryptography as a means to counter Internet censorship
Traffic analysis is the first prerequisite for mass surveillance of the Web. George Orwell’s depiction of dystopia in his classic 1984, a society devoid of privacy, may have seemed like an exaggeration in 1949. But, with technology intruding deep into our lives today, we may actually be heading into a less obvious version of a similar state. (The Hindu)

Internet censorship around the world
Singapore’s government is set to tighten regulations for news websites – a move that has drawn accusations that the authorities are trying to control blogs that post anti-government comments. (BBC)

Facebook embroiled in multiple free speech battles
Facebook landed in the crosshairs of a fiery hate-speech protest last week that garnered so much media attention that the Menlo Park company had to issue a public mea culpa. Turns out it was just one of many First Amendment conflicts to put Facebook in the awkward and unenviable position of deciding what type of speech must be policed. (San Francisco Examiner)

AUSTRALIA
Racism, bigotry and debate, Australian-style
There is a very Australian way to have a racism controversy. Whenever bigotry, prejudice or discrimination is revealed on the national stage, all of us can agree: Yes, it’s horrible and we would never dream of endorsing it. We can all say, hand on heart, that racism is abhorrent and warrants our condemnation. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Our duty to look -Why censoring press photos is wrong
When Destination NSW censored an outdoor photography exhibition meant to appear as part of the Vivid Sydney festival, they offended more than just the photographers who risk life and limb to take these “distressing” pictures.
(World News Australia)

Free speech court victory over illegal move-on notices
Perth activist Kamala Emanuel won a resounding victory on May 28 in an important court case addressing the right to protest. (Green Left)

FIJI
Fiji media still self-censoring says academic
Professor Robert Hooper, a professor at UC San Diego who has taught journalism in Fiji, has just published an academic paper called “When the barking stopped: Censorship, self-censorship and spin in Fiji”.(Radio Australia)

CHINA
World press alliance urges China to free journalists
A global alliance of newspapers and news publishers called on China Sunday to release all journalists languishing in its jails and end attacks on freedom of expression. (The Economic Times)

Sina debuts sophisticated new censorship tactics for June 4 anniversary
Since Friday morning, Weibo users have been able to search for sensitive terms such as ‘June 4 incident’ and ‘Tiananmen Square Incident’ without receiving a censorship notice. Instead, such searches show partial, unhelpful results, according to Greatfire.org. (Shanghaist)

China experimenting with Web censorship methods
GreatFire.org, which monitors blocked sites, says keyword search results for 1989 Tiananmen Square protests have been amended or thoroughly filtered, instead of showing the usual message stating sites cannot be displayed. (ZDNet)

JORDAN
Jordan attempts mass internet censorship
Jordan has become the latest country attempting to censor internet-published dissent by blocking access to a large number of websites from within the country. (ITNews)

QATAR
Cybercrime draft law draws flak
A draft cybercrime law approved by the State Cabinet late last week has kicked up a row, with Qatar’s media freedom watchdog severely criticising it for dealing with issues that concern freedom of expression on the Internet. (The Peninsula)

RUSSIA
No Place for Guriev in Putin’s Russia
Sergei Guriev’s decision to resign as dean of the New Economic School and to stay abroad was widely discussed in Russia and in the West. Not only is Guriev an internationally respected economist, but his school was a top-notch, world-renowned educational institution. (The Moscow Times)

SINGAPORE
In Singapore, A Rare Call for Protest Against Blogging Censorship
Singapore’s blogging community is rebelling against a stringent new law that requires online news sites to put up a performance bond of US $40,000 and to submit to government censorship, calling for the general public and bloggers to rally next Saturday against the measure. (Irrawaddy)

THAILAND
Thai filmmakers challenge censorship
There was public outcry in Thailand when a politically sensitive documentary was banned by the government. The movie, “Boundary”, tackles the deep political division within the country and the territorial dispute with neighbouring Cambodia. (Al Jazeera)

TUNISIA
3 Femen women held in Tunis after baring breasts
Feminist activists could face up to 6 months in jail for topless protest in support of Amina Tyler. (AhramOnline)

TURKEY
Turkish Leader Says Protests Will Not Stop Plans for Park
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey dismissed the tens of thousands of protesters who battled for two days with police officers in the streets of Istanbul as “looters” and “bums” on Sunday. He vowed to push ahead with plans to demolish a public park — a trigger for the spasm of public anger that left Istanbul’s main commercial district strewn with graffiti and broken glass.(The New York Times)

Turkey’s Urban Revolt Signals a Critical Phase in Turkish Politics
Despite the astonishing, far-reaching changes that Turkey has undergone in recent years, clouds of anxiety are gathering over the country. (Huffington Post)

The voices of Turkish protesters have been heard
It started out small, but has taken on a life of its own. Last Monday, a handful of peaceful protesters occupied Gezi park on Taksim Square, one of the few green spaces in Istanbul, in protest against plans for its redevelopment into a mall (The Guardian)

UNITED KINGDOM
When is a tweet hate speech?
After the recent slaying of a British soldier in a suspected Islamist-extremist attack, angry social media users took to Twitter and Facebook, with some dispatching racially and religiously charged comments that got them quickly noticed on the busy boulevards of the Internet. (Winnepeg Free Press)

UNITED STATES
Contempt for free press
During his May 23 speech on national security, President Barack Obama promised to chat with Attorney General Eric Holder about reviewing his policies for investigating the news media. (Arizona Repubic)

US company accused of aiding Syria in censorship efforts
Despite trade sanctions against this type of technology, it would seem the US continues to supply the Syrian regime with material and software used to monitor the Internet and trace opponents. These findings are from a study of the Syrian web infrastructure carried out by cyber activists from Telecomix last week. The data suggests that 34 servers in Syria have been updated with software from the firm Blue Coat. (France 24)

Administration dams free flow of information
Freedom to report the news requires the freedom to gather it. In the months ahead, that basic concept — so central to the First Amendment’s protection of a free press — will also be at the heart of the ongoing debate over how far government officials may go in pursuit of those responsible for “leaking” classified information to journalists. (The Daily Progress)

Journalist Lemmings Dive Off Cliff While AG Holder Spies, Blusters & Prevaricates
Of all of the accidentally hilarious aspects of the implosion of Obama’s War Against the Bill of Rights, none is more informative than his broadside against journalism and Freedom of the Press. What does it say about those who take their very sustenance from the 1st Amendment Free Speech clause that many want to extinguish other people’s constitutional liberties at every possible opportunity? (Canada Free Press)

Why Cheerleaders Can Post Bible Verses
So a school district, that has already lost in a lower court, attempting to ban both religious belief and free expression thereof, now wants to spend tax-payer money to attempt to thwart those same rights of religious belief, and free expression.
(TownHall.com)

The real IRS scandal is over free speech
Should you need a license from the government to exercise free speech? The real scandal at the Internal Revenue Service should be seen not as a left-versus-right issue but instead as infringement on the First Amendment. The people targeted were political entrepreneurs with unorthodox political voices. More to the point, IRS discrimination was consistent with 40 years of institutionalized hostility by the federal government to such views. (Denver Post)

Google ordered to hand private customer data over to FBI investigators
A US judge has ordered Google to comply with FBI secret demands for customer data, despite earlier ruling the warrantless orders unconstitutional. (The Guardian)

Colorado Legislature Must Have Been Smoking Something
Colorado voters have legalized recreational pot smoking, but this week the governor signed an unconstitutional bill that prohibits marijuana-centric magazines from being sold except from under the counter, three magazines claim in court. (Courthouse News)

Free expression in the news

21 May 13 | In the News

AUSTRALIA
When does mission creep become censorship?
The sort of abuse of power we’re seeing out of ASIC is endemic to the regulatory state, argues Chris Berg. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is completely out of control. (The Drum)

AZERBAIJAN
Azerbaijan accused of restricting freedom of expression online
A group of Azerbaijani youths met in Baku city centre and made a Harlem Shake video, the dance that has become something off an online sensation in recent months. This video was uploaded in February and seems pretty harmless, no different from all the others doing the rounds on the web, and yet Ilkin Rustemzade may well go to prison. The opposition activist was arrested and charged with hooliganism for making this video. (France 24)

CHINA
Messaging app Line prepares the groundwork for censoring politically sensitive phrases in China
Earlier this year, Tencent-owned WeChat, a mobile messaging app with more than 300 million users, came under fire for censoring ‘sensitive’ topics that its users were discussing. Now, Line, a rival app developed in Japan which has 150 million users, is the next in line to pal up to the Chinese government and restrict the use of certain phrases on its service. (The Next Web)

EGYPT
US urges Egypt gov’t to defend political speech
The Obama administration is calling on the Egyptian government to rein in prosecutions of political expression amid what it called a “growing trend” of efforts to punish and deter people from speaking their mind. (AP via Post Bulletin)

FRANCE
‘Day Of Nude On Facebook’: French Users Protest Censorship With Bare-Skinned Photos
“Day of Nude on Facebook” — a French protest aimed at challenging Facebook’s unnecessary censorship of photos — backfired when the social media site took down the event page and suspended the accounts of some involved in the online demonstration. (Huffington Post)

JORDAN
Jordan premier: Arab Spring forces governments to widen press freedoms
The Arab Spring uprisings that toppled four Arab leaders have forced Mideast governments to allow more freedom of expression and of the press, Jordan’s prime minister said Monday, but critics charged that Jordan itself is not doing enough. (Washington Post

NEPAL
Libel charge at SC against press council
A libel case has been filed at the Supreme Court (SC) against the tri-monthly newssheet Sanhita published by Press Council.
Journalist Roshan Puri, Govinda Devkota and advocate Shree Krishna Subedi moved the court accusing that an article titled ‘Dai, JayaNepal, Comrade Abhinandan’ published in the Chaitra issue of the newssheet has slandered the petitioners. (Kantipur)

TUNISIA
Tunisian feminist arrested for ‘provocative’ appearance in holy city
A Tunisian feminist who scandalized her country by posting topless photos of herself online has been arrested after allegedly sneaking into Tunisia’s holiest city disguised in a veil, then trying to get undressed during a protest. (Washington Post)

UGANDA
Monitor offices under police siege
Police officers Monday searched Monitor offices, claiming they were looking for the Gen David Sejusa’s letter. The police later shut down the newspaper’s printing press and its sister FM radio stations – KFM and Dembe FM.Time Check, 11:15am and three fully packed police patrol vans stop outside Monitor offices. (Daily Monitor)

UNITED STATES
Fox News responds to ‘chilling’ DOJ investigation
Fox News has responded to a Justice Department probe of reporter James Rosen, reported by the Washington Post, that involved tracking his movements, phone calls and e-mails. (Washington Post)

Is A Facebook ‘Like’ Protected Under The Right to Free Speech?
Six former sheriff’s department employees who said they were fired in 2009 for “Liking” their boss’ political rival on Facebook appeared in Virginia federal appeals court this past week. (Opposing Views)

Column: Forced union dues violate free speech
Just as the government cannot stop you from supporting a political candidate, it cannot make you pay to support a candidate. The First Amendment protects both the right to support political causes and the right to not support them. But in California, that right is denied to hundreds of thousands of public school teachers who currently must pay exorbitant fees to bankroll the agenda of powerful teachers’ unions. (USA Today)

Attorney: Evansville man’s Twitter messages are protected free speech
The attorney for an Evansville man accused of making threats on the social media outlet Twitter is arguing the remarks are free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution. (CourierPress)

Movie studios send fraudulent censorship demands over Pirate Bay documentary
You’ll remember last month’s news that Fox had sent fraudulent takedown notices regarding my novel Homeland. This is hardly an isolated incident: the studios routinely exhibit depraved indifference to the inaccuracies in their automated censorship threats to search engines and webhosts. (Boing Boing)

US Supreme Court Accepts Religion Case: Will Legislative Prayer Survive Religious Censorship?
The case out of New York presents an opportunity for the US Supreme Court to bring needed clarity to Establishment Clause jurisprudence. I hope they do so. We have witnessed a growing governmental hostility toward religious faith and expression in the public square. (Catholic Online)