The Jaipur Literary Festival, a giddily chaotic celebration of the written word set on the grounds of a Rajasthan palace, ended in misery and embarrassment today, with the organizers bowing to pressure from local security forces and scotching plans for Salman Rushdie to “appear” at the festival, finally, by video link. Rushdie had already been forced to cancel plans to come to Jaipur after he had received intelligence reports—bogus intelligence,...

-PTI   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said "perversions" like paid news had come as a shock but Censorship was no answer and favoured self-regulation for the media. "It is true that sometimes irresponsible journalism can have serious consequences for social harmony and public order, which the public authorities have an obligation to maintain, but Censorship is no answer," he said at a function to launch a book 'The Tribune 130 years:...

-PTI The government today said it has no plans to censor the Internet even as it sought to send a strong message to social websites like Google and Facebook that any company wishing to operate in the country will have to follow law of the land. The assertion comes amid growing unease among global website and social media companies over the government asking the social websites to ensure that uploading of derogatory...

-IANS The Indian government's decision to prosecute social networking sites like Google and Facebook has triggered public anger, with netizens saying the move is tantamount to clamping down on constitutional rights of free speech and individual liberty. "This Censorship is totally useless, the government is trying to curb freedom of speech and expression, which is everyone's right," Kartik Dayanand, a social media consultant and blogger, told IANS. The government Friday gave the green...

-The Economic Times   The government's sanction to prosecute some social networking sites, including Facebook and Google, in response to a Delhi court's hearing of a complaint against these sites for allegedly carrying objectionable content, will reignite the debate on Censorship, freedom of expression and what constitutes profanity or offence.  At first glance, the government's reaction would seem to be missing the wood for the trees. Most such sites or internet companies aver...