Speech and Spies: Why Sri Lanka’s New Counterterrorism Law is a Terrible Idea
A year ago, Sri Lanka promised the world that it would repeal its current Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). In a historic co-sponsored resolution, it assured the UN Human Rights...
PJS v News Group Newspapers: Threesomes! Privacy! Social Media!
On 19 May 2016, the UK Supreme Court handed down judgment in PJS v News Group Newspapers Limited. This decision concerned the proposed publication of details concerning the extramarital activities...
Criminalising Dissent in Indian University Spaces: Implications of the JNU Incident on Free Speech and Sedition Laws
The Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, presents a miserable picture of an economy shattered by decades of constant turmoil, death and military vigilance. In an effort to voice the...
The Struggle for Right to Information in Sri Lanka: Is it Leaving Victims Behind?
Sri Lanka is on the brink of a historic moment. Following a long struggle spanning over a decade, a Bill on the Right to Information (RTI) was tabled in the...
Papa Don’t Preach (You May be Found Guilty of Hate Speech)
Rare is the day when the lowly District Judge sitting in the Magistrates’ Court gets the distinction of having one of his judgments reported. Kudos then to District Judge McNally...
Online Speech in Hungary before the Strasbourg Court: Freeing the Low
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in MTE and Index.hu v Hungary (“MTE/Index”) issued a decision protecting free speech in the form of user-generated online comments. In particular, the...
Endangering Democracy: Concerns Over Raising Surveillance in China
Control over cyber space and information, particularly citizens’ data, has defined modern strategies of combating terrorism through technologies. Justifications provided for extensive surveillance legislation that may impinge civil liberties have...
Journalism, Detention and Anti-Terrorism Powers
Few would dispute that journalistic sources and material deserve special legal protection in a liberal democracy. But few would suggest that this protection should confer a licence to damage national...
Pakistan: A Paradoxical Divinity
The 4 January 2016 marked five years since the Punjab governor Salman Taseer was killed by a member of his own security detail in a popular market in Pakistan’s capital...
The strange case of Amos Yee: whither free speech and children’s rights in Singapore?
On 27th March 2015 as Singaporeans mourned the death, four days earlier, of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (often known as LKY), a 16-year-old Singaporean named Amos Yee uploaded...
Hate Speech in Sri Lanka: How a New Ban Could Perpetuate Impunity
In June 2014, an altercation between a Buddhist monk and two Muslims resulted in a public rally in Aluthgama—a small town on the Southern coast of Sri Lanka known for...
Couderc and Hachette Filipacchi Associés v. France: A New “Respect” for Private Life?
On 10 November 2015, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) handed down judgment in the case of Couderc and Hachette Filipacchi Associés v France. The...
