Index on Censorship

President Mohamed Morsi’s first 200 days in office alone have witnessed more defamation lawsuits than under all Egyptian rulers combined since 1892, states ANHRI in its latest report, issued to mark the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution.

A 28-year-old middle school teacher at a private school in Mexico City has been fired after showing her students the 2008 film Milk, which tells the story of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was murdered in San Francisco in the 1970s.

In a letter to the US President, 40 human rights organisations called for US support to release 13 Bahrainis, unjustly jailed by the Bahraini government, one of the strongest allies of the US in the region.

Thirty IFEX members protested the sentencing of bloggers, citizen journalists and rights activists, jailed for up to 13 years in the biggest ever trial of pro-democracy activists in Vietnam.

Police intercepted a letter with a bullet intended for a Belfast-based journalist who had reported on loyalist protests. A bullet and sympathy card addressed to a Social Democratic and Labour Party assembly member were also intercepted by Royal Mail over the weekend.

The National Constituent Assembly (NCA) is scheduled to adopt Tunisia’s new constitution in the next few months and free speech advocates remain concerned over Islamist vows to criminalise blasphemy.

As Egypt closes 2012 with the approval of a new constitution, Index on Censorship reflects on a tumultuous year, and looks ahead to an uncertain future.

A new report by Index on Censorship explores the main challenges to digital free speech in Belarus, concentrating in particular on the ways the state authorities restrict freedom of expression online.