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SubscriptionsCategory: Freedom of Speech
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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
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Tucker Carlson’s Visit to Hungary: Lobbying, Free Speech and Far-Right Conspiracy
Fox News’ bombastic Conservative commentator, Tucker Carlson, meets Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, two years after a firm where his father is a director received thousands from the Hungarian Government to help with media and PR, Sian Norris reports
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Gavin Williamson Faces Free Speech Legal Challenge Over Palestine Letter
After 47 Muslim pupils and teachers faced censure for expressing solidarity with Palestine during the recent conflict with Israel, a human rights group has launched a legal challenge against the Secretary of State
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Watch Your Tone! How Women MPs of Colour are Tone-Policed
n the same week that Dawn Butler was expelled from the House of Commons, MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan was ‘tone-policed’ by a white MP – and not for the first time. Sian Norris analyses a worrying trend
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Using Democracy to Undermine Equality: Hungary’s Referendum on LGBTIQ Rights is Part of a Wider Pattern
Voters in Ireland, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia have all been asked to vote on LGBTIQ equality in the past decade – now Hungary’s population will go to the ballot box to decide on the same issue
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School Pupils Face Sanctions for Supporting Palestine
New research uncovers 49 cases where school pupils and staff face detention, suspension and even expulsion after showing solidarity with Palestine during May’s conflict
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How Johnson Decries Racism Against Footballers While Implementing Legislation That Fuels a Racist Culture War
Ben Geblum analyses how recent legislation from the Higher Education Bill to the New Plan for Immigration undermines the Government’s recent anti-racist statements
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Boris Johnson’s Idea of Freedom is a Form of Oppression
Just as the Government hails ‘freedom day’ it also restricts the right to protest and denies freedom of movement. Sian Norris asks if this is just freedom for markets and money rather than people
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‘A Manhunt Against Journalists’: Far-Right Attacks on Tbilisi Pride Leaves 53 Reporters Injured
A Pride march was forced into cancelling for a second time as far-right protestors, with support of the Orthodox Church, descended on the Georgian capital and attacked journalists, reports Sian Norris
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Selective Free Speech: Academics Discussing Race Face the Real Cancel Culture
Black, Asian and ethnic minority academics and university staff increasingly encounter a ‘cancel culture’ when discussing race – as the usual free speech advocates stay silent, Sian Norris reports
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UNESCO Names Brexiter Arron Banks as ‘Prime Instigator’ of Online Harassment Against Female Journalist
A report into online violence against women journalists finds political actors and right-wing media play a significant role in spreading disinformation and inciting harassment, Sian Norris reports
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‘Most British Institutions Pander to the Mail’s Blackmailing and Racism’
As attacks by right-wing tabloids on female academics intensify, Sian Norris explores why they appear to be able to publish such material with impunity
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The ‘Phantom Threat’: University Free Speech Policy Only Based on ‘Small’ Amount of Evidence, Government Admits
Sam Bright unpicks the evidence, relied on by ministers, for their new clampdown on academic institutions
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IWD 2021: Internet Now ‘Most Dangerous Place’ to be a Woman Journalist
A new study by Reporters Without Borders exposes the dangers faced by women journalists online and off
