IN Media Freedom | 2018-07-26
MS University Vadodara canceled comedian Kunal Kamra’s show because only free speech minus dissent is acceptable to our current establishmen
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS|10/07/2017
The Orissa High Court has taken 22 years to quash a defamation case against BJP MP Tathagata Satpathy and others. It was quashed last month. Earlier this year Satpathy introduced a bill seeking to decriminalise defamation in the Lok Sabha which if passed would remove the threat of imprisonment for defamatory speech. He..
Free speech in the courts: legal outcomes in 2016
BY SEVANTI NINAN| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |30/12/2016
Sedition, defamation, censorship, internet shutdowns—the year saw the courts being tested on a range of freedom of expression issues.
Get permission from a DC to post on WhatsApp!
BY IRFAN QURAISHI| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |07/05/2016
Kashmir’s new curbs aim to stop false rumours spreading but they infringe the right to free speech and section 79 of the IT Act.
A new effort to reform defamation
BY PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU| IN DEFAMATION |25/09/2016
A private member’s bill by a BJD MP seeks to repeal the criminal defamation law and codify civil defamation. The Hoot has a copy of this media-friendly bill.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |15/09/2016
How does an SC clarification on sedition percolate to lower court judges actually hearing these cases? It evidently does not. Despite this SC observation last week that criticizing the govt is not sedition, a Kashmiri youth jailed in Durg in Chhattisgarh has been denied bail today, for a second time...
BY SIDDHARTH NARRAIN and GEETA SESHU| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |19/08/2016
Is most free speech becoming seditious because the law is being applied so casually, without the care that is meant to be exercised?
AP’s political media yells ‘free speech’
BY PADMAJA SHAW| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |24/06/2016
Telugu media houses flaunt their political affiliations and function as the assault teams of the main parties while professing ‘fearless journalism’.
Free speech verdicts good, logic bad
BY PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU| IN JUDGEMENTS |25/07/2016
In their Udta Punjab and Perumal Murugan rulings, the courts missed an opportunity to lay down some fundamental principles.
BY PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU|IN BOOKS|09/06/2016
Sue the Messenger is a breezy read by Subir Ghosh and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta of recent SLAPP cases in India.
HRW: Govt urged to stop treating critics as criminals
IN SPECIAL REPORTS |25/05/2016
The Indian government should repeal or amend both recent and colonial era laws that are used to criminalize peaceful expression.
Awful reasoning and tortuous verbosity
BY PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU| IN JUDGEMENTS |17/05/2016
The central flaw in Justice Dipak Misra’s criminal defamation ruling is equating right to reputation with right to free speech as a fundamental right. ??
Maharashtra leads in free speech violations
BY NANDITA JHA| IN SPECIAL REPORTS |21/01/2016
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are the states which registered the most free speech related cases in 2015.
Guardians of the law attack free speech
BY PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU| IN CENSORSHIP |16/11/2015
Between the state and some high courts, free speech is constantly under attack. The Assam Rifles order is only the latest in a string of diktats.
Raising the threshold for defamation
BY PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU| IN DEFAMATION |03/10/2015
A new court order in a defamation case finally tilts the balance slightly in favour of journalists and bloggers and against powerful corporations.
Thin line between free and seditious speech?
BY GEETA SESHU| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |06/09/2015
The Maharashtra guidelines ignore the SC distinction and bring elected representatives and government officers within the ambit of sedition.
BY NANDITA JHA| IN DEFAMATION |27/08/2015
Defamation cases against the media are being filed thick and fast in 2015, with the pace picking up as the year wears on.
Can free speech be stretched horizontally?
BY APARAJITA LATH| IN CENSORSHIP |17/04/2015
The fracas over the publication of an e-zine by students of St Stephen's College tests the elasticity of freedom of speech.
BY PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU|IN BOOKS|09/06/2016
Sue the Messenger is a breezy read by Subir Ghosh and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta of recent SLAPP cases in India.
IN LAW AND POLICY|25/03/2015
In an impressive judgement, the Supreme Court has protected free speech by striking down Section 66A of the IT Act.
Free speech, religiosity and Urdu press
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |09/02/2015
"I want to ask the English media, should the community not have gone to the police station? Not adopted a democratic approach?" A month after the Hebdo killings and its repercussions here with the Shirin Dalvi case,
Should the freedom to react be absolute?
BY Geeta Seshu| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |30/01/2015
Shirin Dalvi, the editor of Urdu newspaper Avadhnama, was arrested in Mumbai for publishing a cartoon of the Charlie Hebdo cover.
Free speech under attack from violence and defamation suits
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |16/12/2014
Physical attacks against journalists are nothing new but the increase in defamation suits and notices has emerged as the new tool of choice for those who want to silence the media
No escaping the surveillance state?
BY SOFTWARE FREEDOM LAW CENTRE| IN DEFAMATION |04/09/2014
Indians are routinely subjected to government surveillance on a staggering scale -7500 to 9000 telephone interception orders by the Central Government each month!
BY SANJAY AUSTA| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |07/08/2014
Taken aback at the moral indignation over Facebook photos that people mistakenly thought depicted the Delhi gang rape,
How to make dissent 'anti-national'
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |17/06/2014
Selective witch-hunting by those in power against those who challenge this power will result in the clamping down of all expression of dissent.
The writer and publisher: no holy marriage this!
BY MURZBAN SHROFF| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |21/02/2014
When a writer is attacked or hauled to court, who really stays on for the good fight?
Penguin's options: fight or leave
BY ANUP KUMAR|IN MEDIA FREEDOM|18/02/2014
If we do not want matters to be resolved on the street, we can't claim free speech protections for critical scholarship and publication, and yet avoid defending the right when challenged in a court of law,
Of 'chicken' publishers and repressive laws
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |16/02/2014
Give up publisher's rights to publish to a general public and revise Sec 153 A and 295 A of the IPC to protect academic and artistic freedom
'I will stand by freedom of speech'
IN DIGITAL MEDIA |14/08/2013
A well-known dalit writer is arrested for a facebook post on the suspension of IAS officer Durga Nagpal and the demolition of a madrassa.
Shameful gag order on Islamic scholar
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |31/07/2013
The manner in which Madras University caved in and withdrew its invitation to Islamic and women's rights scholar Amina Wadud was shameful,
IN OPINION|30/06/2013
Kabir Kala Manch activists sang and performed on issues of malnutrition, women, female infanticide, farmers' suicides and other such themes. But since when is this deemed to be unlawful?
Assam media upheld artistic freedom
IN OPINION |23/04/2013
LETTER TO THE HOOT: When ULFA issued a diktat against Hindi songs at Bihu celebrations, the Assamese media sprang into action.
Mumbai cops trawl social spaces online
BY Rohini Lakshane|IN DIGITAL MEDIA|27/03/2013
The lab intends to 'watch' publicly visible content, not private information.
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |02/01/2013
Death. Attacks. Arrests. Censorship. Curbs on online media.
IN LAW AND POLICY |12/09/2012
The arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has served to focus attention on the issue of holding a modernizing democracy hostage to colonial laws.
BY Geeta Seshu|IN MEDIA FREEDOM|13/08/2012
The attacks on journalists on Saturday in Mumbai left media persons shaken, not so much because of its unexpectedness or its brutality but because of the naked hostility towards the media,
L'affaire Rushdie and free speech - Part III
IN CENSORSHIP |02/02/2012
While the dust has settled over 'the Ghost who (didn't) walk' in Jaipur, the debate over whether the entire episode destroyed or protected freedom of expression rages on.
L'affaire Rushdie and free speech - Part II
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |02/02/2012
While the dust has settled over 'the Ghost who (didn't) walk' in Jaipur, the debate over whether the entire episode destroyed or protected freedom of expression rages on.
L'affaire Rushdie and free speech - Part I
IN CENSORSHIP |31/01/2012
While the dust has settled over 'the Ghost who (didn't) walk' in Jaipur, the debate over whether the entire episode destroyed or protected freedom of expression rages on.
Oh, Mr Rushdie! Just get in the queue!
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |21/01/2012
The protests against Salman Rushdie's presence at the Jaipur Literary Festival by fundamentalist groups is undemocratic no doubt, but he wasn't the only one targeted.
Free Speech: look beyond content
BY Padmaja Shaw| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |18/12/2011
An analysis of the raging Free Speech debate in India points to a flaw: while all eyes are on the content, there is little focus on the media ownership pattern.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE|13/10/2011
The Delhi University academic council's decision to drop A.K. Ramanujan's essay, 'Three Hundred Ramayanas', from the prescribed readings for BA students,
IN MEDIA FREEDOM|19/05/2011
How free can speech be before it offends someone and can we have a legally acceptable common sense approach to the issue,
Internet media: fragile freedom
IN MEDIA FREEDOM|20/04/2011
Cyber attacks, politically motivated censorship, and government control over internet infrastructure are among the diverse and growing threats to internet freedom. India ranks as ‘partly free’
Revisiting defamation: the demand for decriminalisation
IN DEFAMATION |26/02/2011
The law of criminal defamation has several ramifications, affecting the right to privacy and contempt too.
No criminal proceedings against writer Murzban Shroff
IN JUDGEMENTS |01/08/2010
There are no grounds for criminal proceedings against short story writer Murzban Shroff on allegations of spreading communal harmony,
Book bans: Tale of three books
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |01/08/2010
Judicial pronouncements in three recent cases on book bans and curbs on books for allegedly causing enmity or communal disharmony have upheld freedom of expression in different ways,
Supreme Court lifts ban on Laine book
IN JUDGEMENTS |01/08/2010
Upholding the judgement of the Bombay High Court that the Maharashtra government could not establish which groups would suffer enmity by the publication of James Laine's book on Shivaji,
Freedom of expression important, yet ban is justified
IN JUDGEMENTS |15/07/2010
The Bombay High Court justified a ban on the book, "Islam – A concept of Political World Invasion
Hate Speech: The fault line that divides advocates of free speech
BY Lawrence Liang| IN OPINION |24/06/2010
The legislative intention of hate speech laws seem to be on a permanent collision course with their real effects. Rather than protecting minorities from the vitriolic outbursts of the law has been consistently used by an intolerant majority whose sen
Contempt punishment to Arundhati Roy ‘black spot in judicial history’
IN JUDGEMENTS |15/06/2010
Judicial accountability and the untrammelled powers of the judiciary to punish those who commit contempt of court can lead to a dangerous abuse of power,
BY Padmaja Shaw| IN MEDIA FREEDOM|01/05/2010
It is important to refrain from putting the police in charge of media regulation without tempering it with the participation of civil society. Meanwhile, the media’s failure to self-regulate, while damaging itself severely, is also threatening the su
Should not writers be made of sterner stuff?
BY Vidyadhar Date| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |05/04/2010
Political expedience forced the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan to sidetrack an important discussion on freedom of expression.
BY V Geetha| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |01/04/2010
When women’s groups protested the misogynistic rancour directed at Khushboo, they did so in defense of her right to free speech; and to insist that frank opinions on sexuality not be proscribed by self-appointed morality cops.
A defamation verdict from Kerala
BY N P Chekkutty| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |13/10/2007
The case was a high profile one because those who appeared in it as prosecution and defendants were tall figures in Kerala’s public life. M N Vijayan (left)died soon after the verdict.
Rude encounters with Internet censorship
BY Vij| IN DIGITAL MEDIA |01/10/2003
An Internet discussion group created by a militant outfit of the Khasi tribe in Meghalaya invited government censorship, which in turn triggered a ban on thousands of Yahoo! Groups.
Sikkim publisher faces criminal charge
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |01/01/2002
