-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...

-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 Hoot The brutally fatal silencing of three journalists along with the sharp rise in censorship of content in online media and the increasing cases of defamation marked the deterioration of the climate for free speech across India in 2011. Attacks on journalists continued to be high, with 24 recorded instances even as writers, journalists and lawyers bore the brunt of the intolerance of vigilante groups to dissenting opinion. The Free Speech...

The number of journalists in prison worldwide has spiked to its highest level in 15 years. Of them, nearly half worked online, raising larger questions about Internet Freedom for more than just reporters, but average citizens as well. Eighty-six out of 179 journalists who were in prison worldwide as of Dec. 1, 2011 were reporters or bloggers whose work appeared online, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect...

-PTI Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday got support from Press Council chief, Justice Markandey Katju, who said that he favoured filtering of “offensive material” on social networking sites as it could promote religious hatred. “The pictures and other content show religious figures of certain communities in a highly offensive and even pornographic manner. Such material is bound to create religious hatred and lead to most undesirable consequences,” the former Supreme Court...