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Free expression in the news

INDEX POLICY PAPER
Is the EU heading in the right direction on digital freedom?
While in principle the EU supports freedom of expression, it has often put more emphasis on digital competitiveness and has been slow to prioritise and protect digital freedom, Brian Pellot, digital policy advisor at Index on Censorship writes in this policy paper
(Index on Censorship)

AUSTRALIA
Australia doubles down on censorship, refuses R18+ classification to State of Decay
Australia, coming off the back of refusing classification to Saints Row IV yesterday, apparently wasn’t satisfied with just one act of censorship. Today Undead Labs announced that their game too had been refused classification, so for the foreseeable future Australia will not be seeing State of Decay. Again, the issue seems to be related to some sort of drug use. The team is currently exploring their options with Microsoft
(NeoSeeker)

BAHRAIN
Bahrain mulls clamp on Internet calls
Bahrain is considering introducing controls on calls made via the Internet, including those on Skype and Viber, said a top official.
(Trade Arabia)

BRAZIL
Brazil’s left and right struggle for ownership of protests
Rival groups split on the political direction of the protests, with claims two organisations back military rule
(The Guardian)

EGYPT
Egypt journalists to march for free expression on 30 June
Journalists criticise attacks on freedom of expression under President Mohamed Morsi
(Ahram Online)

EUROPEAN UNION
EU adopts guidelines to “protect and promote” LGBTI rights
Coming on the heels of Russia’s enactment of a “gay propaganda” law, the European Union’s decision to adopt guidelines to protect the rights of lebian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in foreign relations on Monday is welcome. Sean Gallagher writes
(Index on Censorship)

FRANCE
Pro-Israeli activist found guilty of libel
A man has been convicted of defamation in France for his claims about a widely-publicised video which showed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy’s death in Gaza Strip.
(Al Jazeera)

ISRAEL
Knesset members seek libel protection for IDF soldiers
If passed, legislation will enable class-action suits against critics who make false claims about army operations
(The Times of Israel)

INDIA
Censor laws are extremely ambiguous: Anand Gandhi
Independent filmmaker Anand Gandhi was in the city recently to screen his film ‘Ship of Theseus’ for the students of Film and Television Institute of India. Anand spoke to TOI about being an independent filmmaker, film censorship and why serious engagement from the government for Indian films is the need of the hour.
(The Times of India)

JORDAN
Jordan Accused Of Targeting Online Dissent
Jordan’s King Abdullah vowed to make the desert kingdom a “free Internet” country as he began his rule more than a decade ago. On June 2, when local Internet providers were ordered to block hundreds of news websites across the kingdom, Web publishers protested the broken promise and international media watchdog organizations charged censorship.
(NPR)

RUSSIA
Blockage of Major News Websites Raises Censorship Fears
A ruling by a court in the central Russian town of Ulyanovsk ordering a state-run Internet provider to block access to 15 websites, including those of two prominent national newspapers, has sparked fears of a broader campaign of Internet censorship in the country.
(The Moscow Times)

SOUTH AFRICA
South African groups seek arrest warrants for Obama
Two South African groups were trying to obtain arrest warrants for US President Barack Obama, who will visit the country later this week.
(Times Live)

TURKEY
Turkey seeks to tighten grip on Twitter after protests
Turkey said on Wednesday it had asked Twitter to set up a representative office inside the country, which could give it a tighter rein over the microblogging site it has accused of helping stir weeks of anti-government protests.
(Reuters)

UNITED KINGDOM
Banning of Geller and Spencer from UK will only build grievance
Britain’s ban on anti-Muslim activists could do more harm than good, says Padraig Reidy
(Index on Censorship)

Change in libel laws ‘not required in Northern Ireland’
A Stormont committee has been told there is no need to reform antiquated Northern Ireland’s libel laws by a high-profile libel lawyer.
(Belfast Telegraph)

Daily Mail in £110k libel payout over Syrian chemical weapons story
The Daily Mail has been forced to pay more than £100,000 in damages and apologise for a story linking a UK defence company with the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
(Press Gazette)

UNITED STATES
Jeff Olson Faces 13 Years In Jail For Writing Anti-Bank Messages In Chalk
Jeff Olson, a man who is being prosecuted for writing anti-bank messages on sidewalks in water-soluble chalk last year, is facing a 13-year jail sentence.
(Opposing Views)

Companies win U.S. free speech shield over scientific articles
Authors and publishers of controversial scientific articles, and the companies sponsoring those articles, won broad free speech protection from a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday.
(Reuters)

Sexual predator cries censorship over Jaycee Dugard memoir
Eight years ago, a New York journalist named Peter Braunstein, then 41, forced his way into the apartment of a 34-year-old Manhattan woman by pretending to be a firefighter. He proceeded to drug the woman, a former colleague, and sexually assault her for more than 12 hours.
(Los Angeles Times)

VIETNAM
In Vietnam, “Depraved” Blogging Could Get You Locked Up for a Decade
Vietnam is not a good place to be a blogger. At least, it’s not a good place to be a blogger if you actually want to write what’s on your mind.
(Motherboard)

Free expression in the news

25 Jun 13 | In the News

BRAZIL
Freedom of expression, an unfulfilled promise in Brazil
Brazil’s media is characterized by oligopolistic ownership and certain opinions dominate. Journalists and human rights activist call for new laws and regulations to safeguard freedom of speech and access to information in the host country of the 2014 World Cup.
(Journalism in the Americas)

Brazil president Dilma Rousseff proposes referendum on political reforms to try and quell protests
President Dilma Rousseff has announced a referendum on political reform along with £14 billion for public transport after more than a million took to the streets to protest in Brazil.
(The Telegraph)

BURMA
Literature needs freedom – and freedom needs literature
At this weekend’s session of the Edinburgh World Writers’ conference in Kuala Lumpur, the eminent Burmese writer – imprisoned under censorship laws for more than five years – used her own experience to reflect on censorship and imagination.
(The Guardian)

CANADA
Free speech integral to campus life
Opinion: University presidents must uphold the right of students to express unpopular opinions during peaceful protests
(Vancouver Sun)

CHINA
China Is Unblocking Some Search Terms — But Censorship Still Thrives Online
The Communist Party’s efforts to restrict political speech on the Internet have become increasingly sophisticated.
(The Atlantic)

EGYPT
Rights group condemns lawsuits against free speech
Lawsuits against media and opposition groups must stop says Arab Network for Human Rights Information
(Daily News Egypt)

G8
G8 governments sign Open Data Charter
During its summit in Northern Ireland, the G8 issued a declaration and signed an Open Data Charter on June 18, stating their intent to promote machine readable and publicly-available government data.
(Fierce Government IT)

IRAN
Internet Throttling Is Evidence of Iranian Censorship
One of the growing concerns for human rights campaigners is the increasing evidence of Internet censorship in many repressive regimes around the world. During the Arab spring, for example, Egyptian leaders “switched off” the Internet in an attempt to prevent activists from organizing protests or communicating with the outside world. The Syrian leadership appears to have done a similar thing on several occasions during the current civil war.
(Mashable)

NEW ZEALAND
Peters blasts ‘Orwellian’ censorship over stand on migrants
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has compared the country to an Orwellian state because he feels he is being censored for remarks on Chinese immigration to New Zealand.
(The New Zealand Herald)

TAIWAN
After Public Outcry, Taiwan Backs Off For SOPA Like Censorship
Freedom on the Internet is a far fetched idea but citizens are not giving up easily either. Recently we had shared that the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (IPO) had proposed an amendment to its Copyright Act, a proposal that is similar to the United States Bill, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The good news is that Taiwan has temporarily stopped the bill.
(Business 2 Community)

TUNISIA
Tunisian rapper jailed for anti-police song
Tunisian rapper Alaa Yacoub has been sent two prison for two years for an anti-police song. Sara Yasin reports
(Index on Censorship)

TURKEY
Obama, Erdogan discuss Turkish protests
President Barack Obama spoke to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday about the importance of free expression, following days of violence in anti-government demonstrations.
(News24)

BBC reporters ‘intimidated’ by Turkey
The BBC says it is “very concerned” by a campaign by the Turkish authorities to “intimidate its journalists”.
(BBC)

In Turkey’s pious heartland, protests seem world away
“This Nation Is With You” declares a small billboard in the centre of this conservative central Turkish city, the words emblazoned on an image of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and a sea of his flag-waving supporters.
(EuroNews)

UNITED KINGDOM
Mass surveillance threatens freedom of expression
Index on Censorship is extremely concerned about the reported extent of mass surveillance of both meta data and content, resulting from the alleged tapping into underwater cables that carry national and international communications traffic.
(Index on Censorship)

Don’t turn Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer into free speech martyrs
The anti-fascist campaign group Hope Not Hate (HNH) has written to the home secretary Theresa May urging her to stop Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer from entering the UK to speak at an English Defence League rally on Saturday 29 June.
(Left Foot Forward)

UNITED STATES
US needs to protect whistleblowers and journalists
Index on Censorship calls upon the US government to uphold the First Amendment. Whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden — as well as journalists reporting on the Prism scandal, who have come under fire — should be protected under the first amendment, not criminalised.
(Index on Censorship)

Link Between Gun Violence and Video Games is Flawed, Says Media Coalition
The discussion about whether playing violent video games causes real-life gun violence has been raging for years. A new report today by Media Coalition Inc. is bound to fuel that fire, claiming that the harm of violent video games has “skewed the debate and fuels misguided calls for censorship.” Although the report’s headline focuses on “media,” its content focuses on violent videogames, and the Coalition’s press release was promoted by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which is responsible for the E3 video game trade show.
(Daily Game)

Shirt Focus of Free-Speech Fight
In West Virginia, the love of freedom is ingrained more directly in the fabric of the state’s legacy than in most places. It broke away from Virginia at the outset of the Civil War over slavery, becoming the 35th state in the Union 150 years ago this week. But even before that, West Virginia’s forbidding geography had stamped itself on the character of its people.
(Real Clear Poltics)

An important ruling for groups’ free speech rights
A Supreme Court decision rightly prevents the government from requiring certain stances by organizations receiving public funds.
(The Mercury)

Floyd Abrams Talks First Amendment Law At Google
The First Amendment is incredibly important in the Internet age. It’s frequently at the center of many debates on what constitutes free speech online. Now, one of the foremost First Amendment scholars of our time – Floyd Abrams – stopped by Google to talk about his new book, “Friends of the Court: On The Front Lines With The First Amendment”
(WebPro News)

U.S. presses Russia as mystery over Snowden deepens
The United States increased pressure on Russia on Monday to hand over Edward Snowden, the American charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, and said it believed he was still in Moscow.
(Reuters)

Free expression in the news

24 Jun 13 | In the News

BELARUS
ZHREO against the Belarus Free Theatre
Authorities continue to pressure against the Belarus Free Theatre. This time, through the housing and maintenance services.
(Charter97.org)

BOSNIA
Bosnians protest as political stalemate leads to infant death
In the shadow of events in Turkey and Brazil, Bosnians have been taking to the streets. For over a week, citizens of the small Balkan country have been protesting their leaders’ failure to pass a new law on citizen identification numbers, leaving babies unable to travel for medical care. Milana Knezevic writes
(Index on Censorship)

BRAZIL
Unity in defense of freedom of expression of working-class and youth organisations
The right wing is attempting to co-opt the huge demonstrations of the last few days by introducing a bias towards nationalism, against corruption, against PEC 37, etc. There have also been some placards against abortion, for a military coup, and for Joaquim Barbosa (President of the Supreme Court who condemned the PT leaders without evidence in Criminal Case 470) to become the new president of the republic.
(In Defense of Marxism)

CANADA
More is less: Feds boost information services amid complaints of tighter control
The federal government employs nearly 4,000 communications staff in the public service, an increase of 15.3 per cent since the Conservatives came to power in 2006.“sanitized” results.
(Winnipeg Free Press)

CHINA
Weibo Censors Difficult to Detect
For Tea Leaf Nation, Jason Ng claims that Sina Weibo’s censorship has become increasingly opaque in the past months with the reduction of keyword blocks that allow one to easily discern banned search terms. Now, users can find previously banned terms like Xi Jinping or even June 4th, but the search yields “sanitized” results.
(China Digital Times)

EGYPT
Egypt’s army to step in if anti-Morsi rallies become violent
Army says it will intervene because demonstrations against President Morsi are ‘an attack on the will of the people’
(The Guardian)

GLOBAL
Net censorship may backfire
The impulse to protect our children is universal and for so long now filtering or blocking certain Internet sites has been a part of that. There are strong justifications for this, of course. While the Internet is a valuable tool for both information and communication, there is much that it offers is of no value to anyone and considerable potential harm.
(Arab News)

JAPAN
‘Hate speech’ in the media, but not the legal code
This writer, on previous occasions, has expressed irritation over the recent tendency for the vernacular media to rely heavily on English borrowings for neologisms with socially negative connotations, such as sexual harassment, stalking and domestic violence — to name three examples.
(The Japan Times)

MACEDONIA
Macedonia must not silence critical media, UN expert says
Macedonia must allow space for critical media, Frank La Rue, UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of expression said on June 21 2013, saying the closure of a television station and some newspapers in 2011 sends worrying signals about free expression in the country.
(The Sofia Globe)

RUSSIA
Pussy Riot in London: “We are now in a fight. When the world is less sexist, then we will celebrate”
Index’s Padraig Reidy speaks to two members of the Russian feminist punk group on a secret trip to the UK
(Index on Censorship)

UNITED KINGDOM
In Britain, a debate over freedom of the tweet
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. For at least a half-dozen users, their comments landed them in jail.
(Richmond Times-Dispatch)

UNITED STATES
Edward Snowden: diplomatic storm swirls as whistleblower seeks asylum in Ecuador
Whistleblower escapes from Hong Kong to Moscow on a commercial flight despite a formal US extradition request
(The Guardian)

Free speech on the Strip
Some good news on the free speech front: Clark County government now has a hands-off approach on protests, demonstrations and political expression.
(Las Vegas Review Journal)

‘Stop word police!’: Glenn Beck defends Paula Deen’s right to speak
@glennbeck: Paula dean.Shame on U. 2013 not 1953. also agree with bill mahr who I despise but defended after 9.11.Fight for ALL speech.
(Twitchy)

Bosnians protest as political row leads to infant death

21 Jun 13 | Europe and Central Asia

Crowds hold up signs as they demonstrate in front of the Bosnian parliament building in Sarajevo demanding laws for personal identification numbers for newborns. (Photo: Sulejman Omerbasic / Demotix)

In the shadow of events in Turkey and Brazil, Bosnians have been taking to the streets. For over a week, citizens of the small Balkan country have been protesting their leaders’ failure to pass a new law on citizen identification numbers, leaving babies unable to travel for medical care. Milana Knezevic writes

As is often the case in Bosnia, this seemingly straightforward task soon took on an ethnic element. Serbian parliamentarians wanted the number to recognize the internal geographic split between the Serb majority entity Republika Srpska and the the Croat Bosniak majority Bosnian Federation. Their Croat and Bosniak counterparts disagree.

The political stalemate means that since February newborns in Bosnia have not been able to get passports.

Last Wednesday, activists organised a car blockade of parliament in Sarajevo. The impromptu show of support for Belmina Ibrisevic, a seriously ill infant who could not travel abroad to get treatment, quickly grew until several thousand people surrounded the building, trapping parliamentarians inside.

“It [the protest] is about those few brave citizens who decided to take a risk and react. Others came, following basic instinct and their conscience”, says Sarajevo-based activist and political commentator Nedim Jahic.

On Monday, the leaderless “babylution” took the shape of a tribute to baby Berina Hamidovic, who died at a hospital in Belgrade. After weeks of pleading with authorities, her parents decided to take her across the border without a passport.

“My Berina has died, because to Bosnian authorities she wasn’t alive”, father Emir told local press.

On Tuesday, some of Bosnia’s biggest music acts stepped onto a makeshift stage outside parliament. Behind them, projected onto the parliament building, loomed the image of a giant pacifier in the shape of defiant fist. It is estimated some 10,000 people gathered to see the show. Meanwhile, citizens of Tuzla, Mostar, and other cities have also organised demonstrations under the banner of “JMBG”, the name of the ID law. The official facebook page has 22,000 likes and counting, where photos, videos and articles are widely shared. People from across the world have tweeted and facebooked messages of support, as have some of the biggest stars of the region. Combined, this makes for a remarkable, country-wide wave of political expression not seen for years.

This is not the only time Bosnia’s leaders have been unwilling and unable to make important decisions. The complex system of ethnicity-based quotas and vetoes implemented with the 1995 Dayton peace agreement to accommodate Bosniak, Croat and Serb leaders, has led to political paralysis on a number of occasions.

“The timing was important was an important reason for people reacting the way they have in this particular case”, explains Florian Bieber, Professor in South East European Studies at the University of Graz, and a leading expert on post-war Bosnia. “Frustration had been accumulating over time, especially with the deteriorating economic situation. This is an issue that affects everyone, not only one group, which helped galvanised support across the population. It also has a human face. It’s not about losing money; it’s about lack of ID numbers risking children’s lives”.

The size and scope of the protests is not to be underestimated. The feeling of unity invites comparisons to the anti-war protests of 1992. Much has particularly been made of seemingly cross-ethnic nature of the demonstrations. But while it is certainly the case that Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks alike have been taking part and expressing solidarity, the movement has largely been confined to the Bosnian Federation. Recent student protests in Banja Luka, while likely inspired by the nationwide atmosphere of protest, have distanced themselves from the message of JMBG.

“Today’s protests are also important, however, without significant number of citizens from Republika Srpska, it is hard to expect real change. In todays’ conditions and political structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, you cannot expect to have change and efficient pressure without relevant support coming from both entities, which is rarely the case”, Jahic concedes.

Politicians have also been unwilling to cooperate thus far. Some parliamentarians have refused to come back to work citing security fears, while Bakir Izetbegovic, the Bosnian representative to the three-member presidency, has urged people not to take to the streets.

Despite this, the movement rumbles on. The protesters have given the politicians a deadline of 30th June to resolve the ID number debacle, and Jahic says the first priority is to “see results on the directly addressed issue.” However, protesters have also demanded that politicians, who earn approximately six times the national average, take a 30% wage cut and place the money in a fund for Bosnians who need medical treatment abroad. This appears to invoke the frustration and anger about the general state of the country helping drive the scale of the protests.

While Bieber is uncertain whether the demands will be met and the elites will change their ways, he does believe this could be a turning point for the country.

“Even if they fail, the protests have made citizens feel they can achieve something”.

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