-AFP Global online freedom declined for a fifth year as govts stepped up Electronic Surveillance and clamped down on dissidents using blogs or social media Washington: Global online freedom declined for the fifth straight year as governments around the world expand censorship and surveillance of the Internet, according to a group that tracks democracy and human rights. Nearly half of the 65 countries examined have seen online freedom weaken since June...

-The Hindu The Attorney General’s contention in the Supreme Court that privacy is not a fundamental right is disquieting in the context of the ongoing debate over the implications of the collection of biometric data from citizens. It is true that the AG was only replying to the question whether making people part with personal data was not an intrusion into their privacy, and saying that there is a need to...

-The United Nations States must be transparent about the nature of their electronic mass surveillance programmes, an independent United Nations counter-terrorism expert said today as he warned about the impact such measures might have on individuals' right to privacy. "States need to squarely confront the fact that mass surveillance programmes effectively do away with the right to online privacy altogether," Ben Emmerson, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights...

-Live Mint Eight journalists were killed in 2013 while covering stories, six of them during the Muzaffarnagar riots New Delhi: More journalists were killed and attempts to censor the media increased across the country this year, said a report titled ‘Free Speech in India 2013' from the media affairs website, the Hoot. Eight journalists were killed in 2013 while covering stories, six of them during the August-September Muzaffarnagar riots in Uttar Pradesh....

-Outlook New Delhi: Delhi's Election Commission has detected instances of "paid news" relating to five candidates in the run-up to assembly election and added expenditure in this regard in their poll expenses. However, the Commission is yet to decide on the appeals of two Congress leaders including Revenue Minister Arvinder Singh and Sushil Gupta who have moved against the order of inclusion of amount spent on "paid news" in their poll expenses...