freedom of speech

The NLU Delhi students who protested a stand-up comedy act by Abhish Mathew on campus, which attracted considerable media attention and controversy, have written an open letter signed by 15 students and supporters defending their right to protest, even if it disrupted the performer.

"New Delhi authorities on Wednesday asked India’s federal information technology ministry to block the taxi-hailing apps of US -based Uber and its local rival Ola in the city in a bid to enforce a ban on the companies’ services,” reported Reuters.

However, QZ reported last year that blocking of services such as Uber, which rent servers in the cloud, could prove to be “practically impossible without accidentally blocking other services”.

Scroll reported:

A comedy performance by Abish Mathew at the National Law University in Delhi on Sunday took a funny turn. Fifteen minutes into the act, a group of female protesters showed him the finger and walked out of the audience. Soon after, they returned with more people and a placard reading, ‘Get Out Sexist Pig’, ostensibly to protest against the sexist jokes that Mathew had cracked

An article in the unofficial NLU Delhi blog Glasnost criticised the use of the placard and protest as impinging on Mathew’s freedom of expression though the protesters were also exercising their freedom of expression.

Lawyer Nandita Saikia argues that the controversial BBC documentary on the Delhi gang rape, India’s Daughter, is flawed though no more than our society itself.

Granting relief to Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai, who was stopped from flying to London in January, the Delhi High Court on Thursday quashed the 'look out' circular issued against her.

The government argued in its advisory sent to TV channels that excerpts from the documentary India’s Daughter shown on some TV channels appeared to “incite violence against women, thus compromising women’s public safety”.

JGLS Sonepat will hold a comedy roast on its nine-month old campus radio after initially disapproving it due to “scheduling” issues.

The Bombay high court earlier this week restrained the police from arresting AIB members, because their comedy was vulgar but not obscene. What's the difference? Gautam Bhatia explains…

The Delhi high court has lifted its order restraining publication of reports on the alleged harassment complaint joint winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Rajendra K Pachauri.

Disclaimer: If you are easily offended, please DO NOT continue reading. We have shared content that is allegedly offensive, in order to allow reasoned and detached study and evaluation by legal professionals of the legal position.

Pseudonyms such as “Obama” and “Putin” will no longer be available to Chinese citizens who wish to hide their identity on the internet, following new internet restrictions implemented by the country’s authorities

A high stakes case was part-argued today by government and petitioners on the constitutional validity of certain sections of the Information Technology Act 2000.

"Heavens are not going to fall if the provisions are stayed. This matter cannot be treated lightly. Two years have passed and there is no definite answer from you [Centre]… either you file your affidavit or we will stay the operation of these provisions,” said Supreme Court Justice J Chelameswar yesterday in a case challenging the operation of sections 66A and 74 of the Information Technology Act, reported the Indian Express and others.

NDTV reported that the petition was brought by Faisal Farooqui, founder of reviews website Mouthshut.com, in a bid to challenge the draconian and vague anti-free speech law that requires those who host content to remove objectionable or offensive content (s66A) or face three years in jail, with intermediaries facing two years in jail for not complying (s74).

The next hearing is scheduled for 9 December.