The Supreme Court today reserved its judgment on a petition filed by the editor of an in-magazine of the (All India Banks Association) which had published a satirical poem on Mahatma Gandhi but observed that it is a “collective responsibility to respect the Father of Nation”. “Is it not a collective responsibility of the nation…
Unless Akram Hussain has never heard of MF Husain, he could not not know that a painting of Lord Krishna surrounded by “gopis” in bikinis all hanging out in a bar would not go down well. The difference is MF Husain was already famous in the world of art and did not really have to…
The year was 1927 and Mohammad Hidayatullah, a young Indian from a literary family, had just been enrolled at Cambridge. He was eager to take in the drama scene, but had a problem. When he was a boy, his father had prohibited him from seeing a play called Nao Tanki. Hidayatullah mused that this may…
A strom has been brewing in the virtual sphere over the last few days and in all likelihood, you would have come across the term ‘Net neutrality’ and the ‘Save the internet’ campaign. As technical as it may sound, it is actually a game-changer that may alter the way we use the internet. Indian telecom…
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a question and answer session on his company’s website recently. Two of the key things Zuckerberg revealed in the session was that he still supports net neutrality and may bring Internet.org to Europe. The principle of net neutrality, according to which all internet traffic must be treated equally, makes sure…
This statement was originally published on pen-international.org on 27 March 2015. By Evan Rankin and Amy Tang The Supreme Court of India’s landmark decision on Tuesday [24 March 2015] signals a move towards greater protection of free expression in the world’s largest democracy. But there is still much to do. India’s highest court struck down…
The government has sought a report from the Law Commission whether defamation should be decriminalized before responding to the Supreme Court which has asked it to file response in four weeks. The Law Commission has held a consultation on the subject and a report on its website said “respondents overwhelmingly expressed dissatisfaction with the present…
The Supreme Court recently made it mandatory for an aggrieved party to seek a court or government order and present it to the intermediary to take down objectionable or unlawful online content. The judgment watered down the provisions of Section 79(3)(b) of Information Technology Act. The intermediary in this case could be social networking sites…
The youth of the city believe that new, mature legislation is the need of the hour, and not irrational, politically-motivated censorship The country seems to have entered an era of censorship and bans, with everything from what to watch to what to eat being put under the scanner. A Campus round table conference saw youngsters…
The head of the United Nations agency mandated to defend press freedom denounced today the murder of Washiqur Rahman Babu, a Bangladesh-based blogger, and reiterated the call for local authorities to defend freedom of expression and public debate in the South Asian country. “It is important that the Bangladeshi authorities find and prosecute those responsible…