Index on Censorship

Russian authorities have blocked access to 13 sites connected to ”Ukrainian nationalist organisations” on the social media site Vkontakte, Russia’s answer to Facebook.

On Music Freedom Day, IFEX recognises the free expression rights of musicians and looks back at five cases from the last year when people have tried to stop the music.

The March 2013 Art of Transition Symposium was the first public discussion of artist freedom of expression in Burma, looking in particular at the impact of the wave of political reforms, which started at the end of 2011, on artistic freedom of expression.

A U.S. court has ruled that Google should remove the Innocence of Muslims video from YouTube because of copyright. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that an actress in the video may have a claim and further ordered that the ruling be kept secret until 26 February “to prevent a rush to copy and proliferate the film”.

A call for a UN mandate on privacy emerged from an expert seminar held in Geneva this week on “The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age”.

High school students were recently interrogated by police after having peacefully occupied Keratsini’s 2nd High School in October. Those taken in for questioning were asked about their own and their teachers’ political preferences, especially those who had been striking against public job cuts and forced transfers.

Suspects being made to “confess” to crimes live on air in China, is making even the most influential scared to speak out.

Authorities seem to have had trouble telling the difference between terrorists and journalists lately. Index offers a few handy tips to refer to the next time this quandary comes up.