Articles by Index on Censorship
Undermining progress: Digital surveillance and the Tunisian constitution
Tunisia’s new constitution sought to maintain robust protections of fundamental freedoms. However, the recent creation of the Technical Telecommunication Agency (ATT) threatens to undermine such progress in the service of digital surveillance.
The secret group that “controls everything” in North Korea
North Korea seeks to monopolise all information flows and uses incredible psychological and emotional force to ensure its citizens’ loyalty, explains a high-ranking defector.
Crony scheme in control of press and civil society in Laos
Media restrictions in Laos are part of a wider pattern of suppression of information, lack of transparency in business dealings, prevention of protests and cultural and religious oversight by the government and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.
Barrett Brown saga comes to a close with worrying implications for US journalists
On 29 April 2014, “hacktivist journo” Barrett Brown pled guilty in a US court after a long-running battle with the FBI. He had reported on a high-profile Anonymous hack as well as posting provocative videos on YouTube baiting FBI officials. There is now concern that a precedent has been set in which reporters could be prosecuted for writing stories using hacked information.
Slain Pakistani lawyer had received threats for taking on blasphemy case
Rashid Rehman was described as someone who “showed great courage in the face of threats and harassment”. The Pakistani human rights lawyer had received threats for representing a university lecturer accused of making derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad.
Reforming the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
The reforms to the intelligence community that have been advocated by US President Barack Obama are not being taken well in some circles. A fundamental feature of Obama’s reform agenda centres on a greater oversight role regarding surveillance applications assessed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
Revealed: The British exports that crush free expression
UK ministers backed over £4 million of tear gas, crowd control ammunition and CS hand grenade sales over the last two years to Saudi Arabia – one of the most repressive states in the world. The British government also allowed crowd control ammunition to be sold to Malaysia and Oman, as well as tear gas to Hong Kong and Thailand.
Hockey championship in Belarus: Lukashenko puts activists on ice
Authorities in Belarus have been targeting human rights activists ahead of this weekend’s start of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s world championship in Minsk.