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SubscriptionsCategory: Freedom of Speech
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‘The Higher Education Act is a Culture War Tactic Designed by Right-Wingers to Ensure Their Views are Heard’
‘It is difficult not to regard the Act as a classic piece of doublethink designed to censor freedom of expression in the guise of protecting it’
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Activists to Launch Fresh Wave of Protests Against ‘Draconian’ Anti-Protest Laws as Leading Actress Speaks Out
Campaigners plan civil disobedience outside courts, demanding meeting with Attorney General over harsh sentencing of peaceful protesters
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Outspoken Former Footballer Joey Barton ‘Cancelled’ From ‘Free Speech’ Event After Legal Issues
The former footballer has been charged with malicious communications over tweets he sent about ex-England player, Eni Aluko.
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The Free Speech Union’s Key Role in Developing Government Legislation
Karam Bales examines the close links between the FSU, the Office for Students and the Government’s drive to legislate on freedom of speech
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Mask March Ban Has a Chilling Precedent for Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activists in the UK
Refugees from Chinese oppression in Britain also believe the Government’s crackdown on face masks at demonstrations opens them up to reprisals
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The European Congress of Families and The International Organization for the Family
Karam Bales delves into a conference with ties to a Russian backed anti-gender network
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‘Julian Assange Is Not Superhuman – What Is Being Done to Him Is Unworthy of Any Democracy’
Stella Assange speaks to Byline Times about her fears for her husband if his extradition to the US is allowed following a forthcoming hearing in London
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‘As Soon As Comedy Feels Controlled, It Loses Its Power’: The Comedians Afraid of Lawyers
The myriad threats comedians face is explored in the new edition of ‘Index on Censorship’, writes its Editor-in-Chief Jemimah Steinfeld
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The Right-Wing Blind Spot Over Free Speech
A new report by the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank describes the emergence of the ‘culture control left’ – conveniently looking the other way when it comes to the right of politics
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Revealed: Met Police Scans Almost Quarter of a Million Faces Using Facial Recognition Technology in 2023
This newspaper has found officers in London have been zealous users of the system, which automatically scans the faces of passers-by and matches them against a watchlist
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‘Suella Braverman’s “Hate March” Rhetoric is Another Desperate Attempt to Hold onto State Power’
The crafting of ‘ceasefire’ marches as a transgression of Remembrance Sunday looks like a throwback to a top-down colonial mindset, argues Suriyah Bi
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Government Slammed Over ‘Chilling’ Warning Shot to Media Outlets Over Russell Brand Coverage
“A Legal Officer’s duty is to apply the law, not to interfere with the editorial decisions of a free press,” standards body Impress said in a letter to the Government.
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‘You’re Not Just Disagreeing with Mr Sunak, You’re Disagreeing with God’: Why We Need Banned Books Week More than Ever
In just one year, book bans in the US have increased by a third – largely targeted at works containing content on LGBTQ+ rights, race and racism, physical abuse, grief and death
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How Campaigners and Charities are being ‘Gagged by Government’ as Report Issues Stark Warning
From the Lobbying Act to condemnation of peaceful campaigners by Government figures, free speech has been thoroughly degraded, the authors argue
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Free Speech Fundamentalists Ignore the Warnings of Salman Rushdie
Though cited as by the right as a symbol of the dangers and Islam and fundamentalism, the novelist now sees the threats to free speech as “political more than primarily religious”
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The Government’s Blacklisting Policy: ‘My Partial Victory for Freedom and Transparency’
Renowned weapons expert Dan Kaszeta, who was blacklisted by the Government over his tweets, explores why we have not heard the last of the scandal of the Government ‘cancelling’ expert speakers
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Government Cancel Culture: the Department for Education Speaker Blacklist
Subject access requests reveal that educators who make minor criticisms of Government policy are subject to vetting, defunding or removal from events
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‘A Deeply Concerning Precedent in a Democratic Society’: Council of Europe Shares Criticism Over Charging Journalists to Cover Party Conference
The move from the governing party has sparked concerns over press freedom
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Sham Press Regulator Bows to Public Pressure and Condemns the Sun over Clarkson’s Attack on Meghan Markle
With complaints about the notorious column on the grounds of harassment, inaccuracy and racial discrimination dismissed by IPSO, this ruling will have no effect on the conduct of the press, writes Brian Cathcart
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UK Lags Behind on Press Freedom as Media Dominated by Handful of Oligarchs and the Rich Target Journalists
Just three media groups dominate the national newspaper market – and help shape our political narrative, while the Government has failed to act against ‘lawfare’, a new report finds
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Insulate Britain Activists Defiant After Being Locked Up for ‘Speaking Truth’ on Climate
“I’ve always known that it was the right thing to do, and paying this price is the right thing to do as well. It had to be done,” one ex-prisoner tells Josiah Mortimer Insulate Britain protesters locked up for defying a judge’s ban from speaking about climate change and fuel poverty have told Byline Times…
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Anti-LGBTQ+ Hardliners Are Splitting the Baptist Church
Fundamentalist Christians with links to religious right actors in the US are seeking to prevent change on LGBTIQ+ rights in the Baptist Church, Sian Norris reports
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Putin’s War on Russia’s LGBTIQ Community Continues
As a new anti-LGBTIQ is passed by Parliament, activists fight back by retelling their history in the country
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‘The Pariah State that Allows Lawfare’
The UK has an opportunity to lead the way with a national anti-SLAPP law, or risk falling behind the European Union, a coalition of activists, lawyers and journalists warn
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If Elon Musk’s Twitter is All About Free Speech Then What About its Second Biggest Investor?
Mark Frary and Nik Williams look at the perilous position of Saudi Arabia’s 25 million Twitter users, who face imprisonment or even execution for speaking out on social media For all that Elon Musk talks about his belief in free speech, he has chosen some “interesting” bedfellows when it comes to his $44 billion acquisition…
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‘People Know If they Give Up there Will Be Another Massacre’
More than 150 protestors are estimated to have been killed by state security forces in Iran following the death in morality police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Ahminiyline. Adrian Goldberg spoke to human rights activist Nasrin Parvaz, who fled to the UK from Iran in 1993, for the Byline Times Podcast
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Banks v Cadwalladr: Shining a Torch in the Darkness
Peter Jukes looks at the precarious persistence of investigative journalism in Britain – especially when it comes to Russia, Trump and Brexit – and the importance of the public interest defence
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Charity linked to Viktor Orbán Wants to ‘Take Over’ British Schools to Promote Far-Right Pro-Russia Propaganda
Nafeez Ahmed and Karam Bales report on a ‘free speech’ campaign with ties to the Hungarian Government and its record of curtailing freedom of expression
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Imperial Measures: Confected Culture Wars and National Identity
Sam Bright considers the metrics that undermine the right’s new ideological gambit
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Legal Threats to Byline Times’ Reporting of the PPE Procurement Scandal
The Byline Intelligence Team reports on the legal threats from PPE Medpro, a firm awarded £200 million in Government PPE deals
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European Parliament Appears to Censor Report on Press Censorship in EU
The European Parliament removed a reference to Greece’s low ranking on the Press Freedom Index
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Groped, Taunted and Followed Home: The Legal Observers of Protests Targeted by Officers for Peacefully Policing the Police
Josiah Mortimer digs into a shocking new report on the challenges faced by those trying to defend our right to protest
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Government ‘Inconsistency’ On Free Speech
Ruth Smeeth of Index on Censorship tells Sian Norris her concerns about a raft of contradictory Government policies on freedom of expression, as the Online Safety Bill returns to Parliament
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Ukrainian Museum Director Arrested in Attack on Culture
Byline Times talks to Susie Symes, Chair of the Museum of Immigration, about the arrest of Leyla Ibragimova and what it tells us about how authoritarian and repressive regimes attack culture and freedoms
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On Trial: Freedom of the Press
Focusing on the currents cases against Carole Cadwalladr and Tom Burgis, Manasa Narayanan and Daisy Steinhardt explore how libel laws allow the rich and powerful to silence journalism
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The Global Religious Right Network Behind the Gay Marriage Cake Battle
The long-running case featured interventions from an international network of ‘religious freedom’ giants in the US and Europe – showing the power of the global anti-rights movement
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Cambridge Faculty of Divinity Ignores Demands for Inquiry into Peter Thiel’s Far-Right Influence
Cambridge University fails to answer questions raised by staff and students after Byline Times’ revelation that racist pseudoscience is being promoted on campus under the guise of ‘freedom of speech’
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‘Terrifying’ – Johnson’s Government ‘Following Far-Right Playbook’ on Crushing Dissent
Labour peer and former Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti told Byline Times that new amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill are designed to frame people peacefully demonstrating as terrorists
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New Clauses in the Policing Bill Expose Johnson’s Faux Libertarianism
Johnson is sold to voters as a libertarian full of bonhomie – but his Government is suppressing freedom of speech and movement
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Discrimination and Ethics: Gypsies and Travellers Should Be Able to Expect Fair Play from the Media
Katharine Quarmby explores why members of the minority communities are so dismayed by an Ofcom ruling clearing a controversial Channel 4 Dispatches documentary about Traveller crime
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The Government is Crying Crocodile Tears Over Free Speech On Campuses
The Government’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill will limit, rather than protect, academic freedom, argue Liz Fekete and Liam Shrivastava
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Poland Passes Media Law That Threatens Press Freedom
hat could further repress press freedom in the country – despite initially planning to suspend the vote after ruling coalition collapsed
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Right-Wing Media’s Manufactured Fears Over ‘Blasphemy’ are Another Arm of the Culture War’s White Jingoist Agenda
Constructed fears around the return of blasphemy laws enable Islamophobia and distract from a reactionary recasting of British values, says Dr Richard McNeil-Willson
