Nik Williams

Jan 22, 2025 | newslaundry.com | Nik Williams |Vivek Kaul |Prashant Reddy T

Modi’s vision of a restrained online space in India had a busy but not wholly satisfying 2024. The latest version of the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill vanished from sight after content creators vociferously pushed back. The Digital India Bill, which aimed to wrestle control from Silicon Valley, similarly could not be saved from a similar fate after Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the former minister of state for information technology, lost his seat.

Dec 5, 2024 | indexoncensorship.org | Nik Williams |Jemimah Steinfeld

It’s that time of the year again when the team at Index on Censorship brings a little light into a dark world. This year, we have delved into the mind of author Marc Nash to come up with our banned books holiday quiz. He has taken the titles of 20 books that have been banned around the world and created fiendish cryptic clues to each of the titles. Some clues are easy but others are tougher and you might need a clue from the fake book covers we have created to go with them.

Nov 22, 2024 | indexoncensorship.org | Nik Williams |Jemimah Steinfeld |Alexandra Domenech |Martin Bright

The spike haunts journalism. For every journalist in the country, legal threats are a persistent concern that can kill stories dead. Stories that are never published leave no imprint on society around them; while the journalist and their editors know of their existence, their readers and society at large are oblivious. We may know that stories are spiked but their true nature, what has been expunged from the public record, is unknown.

Nov 22, 2024 | antislapp.uk | Nik Williams

Yesterday, MPs from different political parties stood up in the House of Commons to describe press reports from media outlets across the country. What made this moment unique was that each story had never been published. The reason? Legal threats prevented them entering the public domain. Yesterday’s Backbench Business Committee debate was sponsored by Labour MP, Lloyd Hatton, to highlight the lasting impact of abusive legal threats on the public’s right to know.

Oct 21, 2024 | newslaundry.com | Nik Williams

“But in a democracy, it is not necessary that everyone should sing the same song.”This comes from a 1996 Bombay High Court judgement in response to Doordarshan refusing to broadcast In Memory of Friends, a documentary by Anand Patwardhan about the violence and turmoil in the state of Punjab. But the speech environment in India has changed significantly since then. Technology has transformed how people can express themselves and source information.