-DNA   The ministry of home affairs has ordered an inquiry into the repulsive video showcasing Anadaman aborogines - Jarawa tribe - forced to dance nude for food before foreign tourists. “The video, we have inquired, was on the internet for the last 4-5 years. But we have ceased off the matter and taking congnisance, have ordered an inquiry into it by the Anadaman and Nicobar administration and UT (union territory) division. “Besides, we...

-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 Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markandey Katju has sought “more teeth” for the regulatory body and expansion of its ambit over the electronic media and the Internet for which, he suggested, a legislation should be introduced in Parliament. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, now made public under the RTI Act, Justice Katju said the only power conferred on the Press Council under Section 14(1) of the Act...

With the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance raising a red flag against the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill to grant the UID (or Aadhar) project legal status, the project looks set for a slowdown . That could have broad implications for the tech sector that had laid substantial hope on it, especially when global markets are slowing down.  The UID project is estimated to offer IT companies a Rs...