Articles by Index on Censorship
For defectors, getting out of North Korea is only part of the problem
An inside look into the often forgotten struggles of those who have escaped the brutal regime of North Korea and what one non-governmental group is doing to help them.
Brazil moves toward an internet bill of rights
The Marco Civil, originally drafted in 2009, outlines the duties and prohibitions on the use of the web, as well as structures the ways in which the courts can request records for user communications and network access.
A response to UK rules restricting prisoners’ access to books
Anything that stands in the way of a prisoner reading anything is a lunatic act. It costs them more and it costs us more, says Index on Censorship in response to UK Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme.
Chinese tourists are inadvertently reporting on the Tibetan struggle
While Tibetans face fierce Internet restrictions, Chinese tourists appear to be breaching “the great Firewall of China” by sharing holiday snaps with friends back home.
Qatar bills itself as a “bastion of free speech”
“Objectively, it is an autocratic monarchy; not liberal, and certainly not democratic. Some space exists in Qatar for criticism of other regional governments, but not of the Doha regime itself,” says David Wearing, a PhD candidate and Gulf Expert at SOAS University in London.
China’s suprise freedom of speech crackdown on WeChat
The design of the WeChat website meant that freedom of speech in China was for a while preserved – mainly because messages between users remained relatively private and insulated from the wider internet. But Beijing has orchestrated a sudden clampdown on the service: closing several high-profile accounts, some with hundreds of thousands of followers.
Secularists and conservatives in Egypt battle over music videos
In a move that has sparked concern among Egyptian secularists, the country’s censorship committee this week banned 20 music videos allegedly containing “heavy sexual connotations” and featuring “scantily-dressed female singers and models.”
Indonesia suspected of hacking to silence abuse allegations in West Papua
Human rights organisations suspect a live YouTube broadcast detailing abuses by the Indonesian government may have been the real reason behind “technical difficulties” at an environmental conference in Oregon.