Censorship

SC to hear plea raising concerns regarding pre-censorship of films in Jan

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would hear in January a plea which has raised the issue concerning pre-censorship of films. The apex court had in April 2017 sought responses from the Centre and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on the plea filed by veteran actor-director Amol Palekar. The matter came up for hearing before a bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan. "Why should all such petitions be filed directly before the Supreme Court," the bench asked. The counsel appearing for the petitioner said the pleadings in the matter were complete. "It is our respectful submission that documentaries do not fall within the definition of cinematograph as defined under the Act (Cinematograph Act)," the lawyer said. When the lawyer referred to the prayers made in the plea, the bench observed it also relates to pre-censorship of films. The petitioner's counsel said the government had notified the Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023 in August last year but that doe

Hays Code for OTT? Govt to come up with guidelines for 'obscene' content

The proposed OTT regulations are also expected to seek a reduction in the use of profanity, even when it is considered vital to the script

X to wind up operations in Brazil 'effective immediately' due to censorship

The X service remains available to the people of Brazil, billionaire Elon Musk's platform said on Saturday

Turkey blocks access to Instagram over 'censorship', mentions no duration

Turkish communications official Fahrettin Altun, has slammed the Meta-owned platform for 'blocking condolence posts on the killing of Ismail Haniyeh'

Hamare Baarah and Maharaj: To watch or not to watch

Heckler's veto or preventing harm? Censoring films that cause offence opens up a can of worms

Seoul to resume loudspeaker broadcasts as Pyongyang sends trash balloons

South Korea says it will restart anti-North Korean propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas in response to continuing North Korean campaigns to drop trash on the South with balloons. Following an emergency security meeting led by South Korean national security director Chang Ho-jin, the officials decided to install and begin the loudspeaker broadcasts in border areas on Sunday, Seoul's presidential office said in a statement. The move is certain to anger North Korea and potentially prompt it to take its own retaliatory military steps. Chang and other South Korean security officials berated Pyongyang for attempting to cause anxiety and disruption in South Korea and stressed that North Korea will be solely responsible for any future escalation of tensions between the Koreas. North Korea over the weekend flew hundreds of trash-carrying balloons to South Korea in its third such campaign since late May, the South's military said, just days after South Korean activists floated ..

Substack says it won't ban extremist speech, censorship not a solution

In the statement, McKenzie said that he and the company's other founders, Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi, concluded that censoring the publications would not make the problem of hateful rhetoric go away

Censorship and its costly fallout

History shows the damage caused by rewriting unpopular elements of literature or economics extends beyond stifling the soul of education. It holds a nation's progress back

Congress opposes Centre's new IT rules draft, dubs it 'censorship'

The Congress on Thursday opposed the new IT rules draft and accused the Centre of muzzling the Internet and Censoring Online Content

Mass firing at UAE newspaper Al Roeya raises question of censorship

The story about high fuel prices was safe, editors agreed, even under the strict press laws of the United Arab Emirates. Instead, it unleashed a firestorm at Al Roeya newspaper in Dubai. Within days, top editors were interrogated. Within weeks, dozens of employees were fired and the print paper declared dissolved. The newspaper's publisher, Abu Dhabi-based International Media Investments, or IMI, said Al Roeya's closure stems only from its transformation into a new Arabic language business outlet with CNN. However, eight people with direct knowledge of the newspaper's mass firings told The Associated Press that the layoffs came in the immediate aftermath of the article on the UAE's gas prices. Their accounts, given on condition anonymity for fear of reprisals, show the limits of speech in the autocratic nation that tightly controls its domestic media. Self-censorship is rife among journalists at local outlets expected to provide a stream of good news in the UAE, which advertises ..

United Arab Emirates announces end of censorship in cinematic releases

The United Arab Emirates announced on Sunday that it will no longer censor films released in cinemas, the country's latest effort to boost its brand as a liberal hub attractive to foreigners. Instead of cutting sensitive scenes that could offend traditional Islamic sensibilities, the Emirati Media Regulatory Authority will introduce a new 21+ age category for viewers. The movies will be screened in cinemas according to their international version, the authority said in a Twitter post. Censors in the UAE, like elsewhere in the Middle East, have long removed scenes in cinematic releases that show nudity, homosexuality, sex and other content deemed inappropriate sometimes leading to plot holes. Foreigners outnumber locals nearly nine to one in the federation of seven sheikhdoms. The diversity of culture and religion in the tourism-dependent country has at times been at odds with its Islamic laws and traditions. But that's changing as the nation promotes its socially liberal environ

Facebook, Instagram remove over 18.8 mn content pieces in India in Oct

Meta, the newly-formed parent company of Facebook and its family of apps, on Wednesday said that it has removed over 18.8 million pieces of content in October on Facebook and Instagram in India

Peng Shuai fought back, but China will snub any challenge to its authority

Tennis player Peng Shuai had been out of the public eye since Nov. 2. 2021 when she penned a since-deleted social media post accusing former Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual misconduct

Hong Kong arrests newspaper editors for 'foreign conspiracy': Report

5 journos held, $18-mn assets frozen; China warns media outlets, hails move

Regulate big tech but not at the expense of user rights: Mishi Choudhary

The heavy-handed ways in which the government has been behaving in shaping the narrative and curbing dissent make even genuine attempts at regulating big tech suspicious, says Choudhary

'India's online censorship not aligned with US view of freedom of speech'

The White House said India's order to take down tweets critical to Indian govt handling of Covid-19 is not aligned with America's view of freedom of speech around the world

A regulatory trap for storytellers

Since streaming video had no constraints, it offered storytellers phenomenal creative freedom. That is what got in the viewers, got them to subscribe and kept them there

Pak's new internet rules gives wider powers of censorship, draw criticism

The new rules were approved initially by Prime Minister Imran Khan's cabinet in February

This is no Emergency

By looking for an Emergency in our times, we forget to notice that the first Republic inaugurated with the Constitution of India is already over

Best of BS Opinion: Italy locks down, branded generics market, and more

From why analysing state Budgets can be a challenging exercise to how the success of fact-checkers lies in the failure of journalism, here's a selection of Business Standard Opinion pieces for the day