India’s New Laws Silence Online Speech. An innocuous-sounding set of rules called the “Information Technology (Electronic Service Delivery) Rules, 2011” [pdf] went quietly into effect last month in India. These rules, possessing the force of law, practically guarantee that no user of electronic communications in one of the world’s largest countries will ever be completely safe from persecution again.
Under the new rules, anyone who objects to content online will be able to effect that content’s immediate removal. The justifications for removal are so extensive and so vague that virtually anything will qualify for removal.
Sri Lanka arrests online journalist. Lanka eNews announced one of its journalists, Shantha Wijeysooria, was arrested by a squad of cops at the website’s Colombo offices on contempt of court charges. Wijeysooria had written about a Sri Lankan magistrate – the same he’ll be appearing before – accusing him of holding two suspects in custody illegally. The website later published an apology and said it was not true.
Photographers killed in Libya. Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed in Misrata, Libya, covering the uprising there. They were only two of the 192 who have died in the line of duty since 1992.
Syria. In addition to widespread casualties during the ongoing uprising in the streets, the battles against the Assad regime have been active online as well. This report from Global Voices outlines the high- and low-lights.
Sri Lanka photo by Bertrand Hüe
