Committee to Protect Journalists Malaysia's parliament has approved amendments to the country's sedition law, giving the government broad new powers to censor online media, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the legislative amendments and calls on the government to stop using the law to threaten and persecute independent journalists. Malaysian lawmakers aligned with the ruling United Malays National Organisation voted to stiffen the penalties of the 1948 Sedition Act, according to news reports. The penalties now include mandatory three- to seven-year jail terms for convictions, denial of bail for accusations…Read more

Pacific Freedom Forum Punishing social media use could remove an essential check and balance on abuse of power in Papua New Guinea, warns the Pacific Freedom Forum. "Long talked about plans for a new social media law could have a chilling effect on freedoms of speech," says PFF Chair Titi Gabi. "Social media are an effective control on political systems including corruption." Facebook and Twitter are hugely popular in Papua New Guinea, with hundreds of thousands using pages, groups and profiles. That popularity has alarmed government and others concerned at free-flowing and often…Read more

PEN International The Supreme Court of India's landmark decision on Tuesday [24 March 2015] signals a move towards greater protection of free expression in the world's largest democracy. But there is still much to do. India's highest court struck down section 66A of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 ("IT Act"), the vaguely worded and overbroad provision criminalizing the transmission over the internet of content that could be perceived as "grossly offensive" or has a "menacing character" or causes "annoyance," "inconvenience," or "insult"; the list goes on. The wording of the provision was…Read more