-Newslaundry.com Report also mentions the ‘11 journalism rules’ giving rise to censorship and impacting press freedom. Sixty percent of media employees have not been able to work and 84 percent of women journalists have lost their jobs since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August, according to a report released by Reporters Without Borders and Afghan Independent Journalists Association. The report also stated that 43 percent of Afghan media outlets have disappeared. Compared...

-Down to Earth Judgement against Pepsico potato variety sets precedent for all seed and food and beverages corporations not to transgress farmers’ seed rights and freedoms in India, experts say The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Authority December 3, 2021 revoked a PVP (plant variety protection) certificate granted to PepsiCo India Holding (PIH) on a potato variety (FL-2027) on multiple grounds.  This means that Pepsico’s Intellectual Property Right (IPR) granted...

-Newslaundry.com From a media blackout to carrying government handouts, Bangladeshi media’s coverage of the recent communal violence is a reflection of declining press freedom. A little after 2am on October 13, the eighth day of Durga Puja, a man walked into the puja venue at Nanuardighi in Cumilla, Bangladesh. The main idol was curtained off for the night, but near it was an idol of Hanuman. The man placed a book near...

When one of the three farm laws i.e., The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 was enacted last year, it was argued by its proponents that the legislation would allow the farmers to sell their produce (and the traders to purchase that produce) outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee-APMC mandis after crop harvesting. In a way, that particular piece of legislation was enacted to end the...

-TheWire.in The 'Freedom of the Net', an annual report that analyses the state of human rights in the digital sphere, found plenty to object to in the Indian context. New Delhi: “Where democratic checks and balances are lacking, government officials will exploit regulation to punish any company that moderates politicians’ speech, or pushes back against arbitrary orders to remove content or hand over data.” These lines come from Freedom House’s latest edition of...