Having just shaken off a regime that was notoriously intolerant of criticism, citizens of Karnataka might have thought they could breathe – and speak – freely. Not so. On the same day that Siddaramaiah was taking oath as Chief Minister, one Shantanamurthy MG, a government school teacher in […]
Welcome to Kashmir! The tourist paradise! What do we see in Kashmir? What do we hear? What do we know of this beautiful paradise on Earth? A Free Speech Collective campaign for World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2023 Media Freedom in Kashmir after Art.370 abrogation What is […]
What is the state of media freedom in Kashmir after the abrogation of Art.370 on Aug 4, 2019? On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, 2023, here is a glimpse – culled from articles, reports and research papers published in Free Speech Collective from August 8, 2019 […]
Even as the Supreme Court examines the issues raised in petitions against hate speech by hindutva organisations in Maharashtra, sections of the media continue to broadcast programmes and publish reports that seek to misrepresent, disinform and openly incite bias or hate. Complaints have been lodged with various authorities […]
A media blackout, a ban on television crew, externment notices and a massive police force – the Maharashtra government has unleashed all these and more, in its arsenal to break the staunch resistance of villagers to a refinery project in the Konkan . Though shaken by the killing […]
Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal has slammed the detention of Kashmir Walla editor Fahad Shah under the draconian Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA), 1978 as a deprivation of his constitutional and legal rights. Shah was arrested on February 4, 2022 and has faced terror charges in multiple […]
Rapper Rajesh Mungase, who faced charges of defamation and inciting public mischief, obtained interim protection from arrest till April 25. Mungase’s video had raised issues about the injustice meted out to the common people and did not target any person specifically, his lawyers argued. Days after the case […]
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat As Karnataka polls were declared last week, the police administration in Mangalore was quick to withdraw the security provided to eminent rationalist and President of, Federation of Indian Rationalist Association ( FIRA) Dr Narendra Nayak since 2016. Dr Nayak has been not merely active […]
This may seem like a no-brainer for those who know and salute the life of the 23-year-old revolutionary leader Shaheed Bhagat Singh, hanged on March 23, 1931. But for Meta’s Oversight Board, which adjudicates over content moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram, whether to retain the word ‘shaheed’ […]
Journalist Irfan Mehraj’s pinned tweet says : There are hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit families who never left #Kashmir. My story with@khalidHkhan_looks at their experiences in conflict-marred Valley, and how they have survived amid controversy sparked by #KashmirFiles.” The article had appeared in Al Jazeera on May 6, 2022. […]
by Geeta Seshu High irony indeed, but a public meeting on a media blackout in Kashmir was literally blacked out by Delhi police. The Campaign Against State Repression, a loose coalition of over 35 organisations representing students, workers and civil society, organised a public meeting on “Media Blackout […]
The externment proceedings initiated against Tabrez Ali Sayed, the well known youth activist of the Save Aarey movement, has turned into a tool of censorship, fear members of the movement. Adding to the atmosphere of intimidation, Aarey police have registered First Information Reports (FIRs) and begun investigations against […]
Journalist Siddique Kappan arrived home in Kerala yesterday evening after more than twoyears in a UP jail under a UAPA case registered by the UP police. He was accompanied by his wife Raihanath Kappan and D Dhanasumod, secretary of the KUWJ Delhi unit on his flight back home […]
More than 800 film-makers and other supporters expressed their solidarity with film-makers Debalina Majumder and Shabnam Virmani, after their films Gay India Matrimony and Had-Anhad were stopped from being screened at the Ravenshaw University in Cuttack, Odisha, last week. Initially, the university authorities scrapped the film festival, scheduled […]
Part II One of the biggest casualties of the administration’s massive crackdown against journalists Kashmir is that many important stories remain hidden or half-told. There are hardly an investigative stories of the disempowered, issues related to environment, global warming, climate change, gender, child rights and civil liberties. What […]
Part I Jism par qaid hai jazbaat pe zanjeerein hainFikr mehboos hai guftaar pe taazerein hain (With caged bodies and chained emotionsImprisoned are our thoughts and utterances censored) This verse from Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s epic poem, Chand Roz Aur Meri Jaan, encapsulates the individual tragedy of an ordinary […]
Pandarinath Amberkar, accused in the killing of journalist Shashikant Warishe, had tried to kill environmental activist, Narendra Joshi, with a huge stone outside the Rajapur Session Court in September last year! Joshi, general secretary of the Refinery Virodhi Sanghatana, spoke to FSC of his frightening escape from certain […]
“I decided not to give him a byline for the refinery reports as I had some doubts about the backlash, “ said Sadashiv Kerkar, editor of Mahanagari Times, referring to the last story written by Shashikant Warishe before he was mowed down and crushed by a vehicle allegedly […]
Rajapur police have arrested Pandarinath Amberkar, the land dealer who callously mowed down journalist Shashikant Warishe, under Sec 302 (Punishment for murder.—Whoever commits murder shall be punished with death, or [imprisonment for life], and shall also be liable to fine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after pressure […]
In a shocking incident, journalist Shashikant Warishe was mowed down and crushed by a vehicle allegedly driven by Pandharinath Amberkar, a local land-dealer and accused in several land grab cases in the controversial Barsu refinery in the western Konkan region of Maharashtra, barely a few hours after he […]
Finally! After 850days in custody in jails in Uttar Pradesh for the “crime” of traveling to cover a ghastly and tragic crime of the gang-rape and death of a dalit woman in Hathras, Siddique Kappan walks out to freedom. Charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) […]
What are the Emergency powers that have allegedly been invoked to block tweets and videos on Youtube relating to the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question”? According to this report by NDTV, the “The centre has ordered Twitter and YouTube to take down links of a BBC documentary […]
Excerpted from “Let the net work: SFLC.in report on Internet Shutdowns” Executive SummaryIt is an irony that the country which prides itself on its digital initiatives like UPI cotinues to record the maxinum number of Internet Shutdowns acrosss the world. Internet shutdowns have varied impacts on different segments […]
Manan Dar, photojournalist from Kashmir, has secured bail after more than 14 months in jail. He was arrested on terror charges under the draconian UAPA but Additional Sessions Judge Shailender Malik said the allegation made by the NIA “does not appear to be cogent and true”. The order […]
The UN-observed International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on Nov 2 marks the struggle for justice for the killings of scores of journalists across the world. The UN reports that, between 2006 and 2020, over 1,200 journalists have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information […]
On the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, observed annually on Nov 2 , Free Speech Collective focuses on the judgement of the Permanent People’s Tribunal on the killing of three journalists – Miguel Ángel López Velasco from Mexico, Lasantha Wickrematunge from […]
“Uncertain Justice: A Citizens Committee Report on the North East Delhi Violence 2020”, authored by a fivemember group comprising retired judges and civil servants gives the Committee’s findings on factors that contributed to the build-up to violence, features of the violence itself, the role of sections of the […]
UAPA: Criminalising Dissent and State Terror – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009 – 2022, Excerpts from PUCL report on how the Indian state has weaponised the UAPA law against anyone who dares to challenge the Indian state and assert their fundamental rights to information, association, dissent […]
An FSC focus on journalists in custody . Time flies – yet it seems as if things are stuck in a terrifying time loop. It’s been over seven months since the arrest of prominent Kashmiri journalist, Fahad Shah. Shah is the editor-in-chief of The Kashmir Walla (TKW) and […]
More delay in the release of journalist Siddique Kappan! The bail application in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case came up today and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed its response to the bail application and sought an adjournment as Additional Solicitor General SV Raju was to […]
Journalist Siddique Kappan was produced before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Lucknow today but, with stringent bail conditions – to get two local residents to stand surety persons with a cash bond of Rs One Lakh each – he went back to jail, while his lawyers […]
The Chief Justice of India UU Lalit asked a pertinent question about journalist Siddique Kappan, currently incarcerated in Lucknow jail on terror charges, one that should apply to all cases of journalists wrongly arrested for pursuing their professional work : Kappan, who was picked up by Uttar Pradesh […]
The Supreme Court of India issued notice to the Union Government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Software Freedom Law Center, India (SFLC.in) challenging the imposition of Internet Shutdowns to prevent cheating in examinations in the five states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and West […]
The Supreme Court has posted the bail application filed by journalist Siddique Kappan for final disposal on September 9, 2022. The apex court issued notice on the petition filed by Kappan, challenging the rejection of his bail application by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on […]
Journalist Siddique Kappan moved a special leave petition before the Supreme Court of India challenging the rejection of his bail plea by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. On a plea moved on his behalf by Adv Haris Beeran, a bench presided over by the Chief […]
It is unfortunate that despite living in a political democracy for 75 years, Muslim organizations today are demanding a national blasphemy law.
This article has been republished with permission. Today’s censorship wars are part of the larger culture wars driven by white evangelical Christians, a large part of the Republican activist base. They are waging an apparently coordinated campaign against a woman’s right to determine her pregnancy, gay/transgender rights and […]
“Greetings Dear Audience, Happy Independence Day from my heart to all. I am daughter of Siddique Kappan, journalist put inside a dark cell violating all freedom of a citizen….” Journalist Siddique Kappan’s nine-year old daughter, Mehnaz, gave a moving speech on the meaning of freedom on the occasion […]
After more than 22 months in prison for merely travelling to the village of Hathras in Uttar Pradesh to cover a gang rape and murder of a Dalit woman, Kerala Journalist Siddique Kappan was told by Justice Krishna Pahal of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court […]
His latest report was on the impact of smoke and ashes from the factories in the Girdih district of Jharkhand. Rupesh reported how factories in the area had led to health disasters in the area. By Vishad Kumar (Republished from GauriLakeshNews with permission) Jharkhand Police has arrested independent journalist […]
Additional Sessions Judge Devendra Kumar Jangala of the Delhi District Court granted bail to AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair and said that “free speech is the proper foundation of a democratic society.” Zubair was arrested on June 27, 2022 after an First Information report was registered against him by […]
Ranjeet Soni, 46 years old, was shot dead in broad daylight at around 5 pm on June 2, 2022. He was shot in the back of the head at point blank range within the premises of the office of the Public Works Department (PWD), Vidisha just outside the […]
The arrest of journalist and co-founder of the fact-checker site Altnews, Mohamed Zubair, on Monday, 27 June 2022, barely a day after the arrest of journalist and anti-communalism activist Teesta Setalvad, is a chilling indicator of the state of free speech in India. Till date, at least nine […]
Enacted by MeitY in May 2021, the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021.sought to both protect ‘digital Indians’ from the harms of Big Tech intermediaries and regulate the work of online publishers….They have been challenged in nineteen separate cases across the country—with specific portions stayed by multiple High Courts. A common cause for concern: they exert a chilling effect on free speech in India.
Four journalists covering the Agnipath protests in Patna were detained by police after one of them, Amir Hamza, was roughed up and shoved by a police officer. Hamza, a journalist working with a newschannel on Youtube ‘The Activist’, was arrested and is yet to get bail. Of the […]
Republished from The Leaflet with permission Hate speech vitiates the very purpose of free speech, which is the free and fearless operation of a human mind that constantly seeks answers and the truth, says Ujjaini Chatterjee Contemporary Indian democracy is at a threshold of its constitutionalism. Amidst the […]
On World Press Freedom Day , May 3, 2022, this special focus from Free Speech Collective on journalists who are in jail. Download link available below:
On May 3, on the eve of World Press Freedom Day 2022, we present FEAR OF SPEECH Ziva, a young journalist, fears that dissent has slowly become criminal in Indian democracy A short film by students of Whistling Woods International, the film, communication and creative arts institute located […]
Gutsy Dalit journalist and founder of digital news channel ‘ The Mooknayak’, Meena Kotwal, was threatened after she posted a video of herself symbolically burning a copy of the Manusmriti, the regressive, anti-caste and patriarchal book of Vedic laws. After a major struggle with the Ambedkar Nagar police, […]
On Sept 5, 2022, five years after Gauri Lankesh was killed, the case came up before a trial court hearing the case against the 18 persons accused of her murder. The accused are lodged in Bengaluru, Yeravada and Mumbai prisons. The next date for the hearing is Sept 14, 2022.
Free Speech Collective 