All three of Lebanese director Danielle Arbid’s films have been banned in her native Lebanon. She has initiated a legal case against censorship and the Lebanese state – the first trial of its kind. “This is in motion. If we win, this will help other directors and artists to be …

Punjab cultural affairs minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur announced setting up of a state-level censor board to “scan and screen content in music videos” in order to crack down on obscenity. The Central Board of Film Certification called it a ‘separatist move’. “The objective is to screen the content shown in …

A bill replacing theatre censorship with a classification system was presented to the Parliament of Malta in March 2012. It was expected that the bill would be approve, but the opposition requested more time for discussion. The parliamentary debate is set to continue in October 2012. In January 2012, the …

On 25 June 2012, Article 19 reported that international experts jointly call for all governments to create a new category of ‘crime against free expression’ in response to the increasing number of attacks against journalists, media workers, bloggers, human rights defenders and others targeted for exercising their right to freedom …

  On 20 June 2012, a Tagansky district court ruled to keep the three detained band members of Pussy Riot in prison until 24 July 2012 while the police probe continues. Since February 2012, three band members of the all-female punk rock band from Moscow have been in the Butyrskaya …

“Algerian intellectuals, journalists, cultural activists, artists and writers ring the alarm and request from the Ministry of Culture to lift its control over the cultural sector and let the independent/civil cultural artistic stakeholders undertake their projects freely…” Algerian artists and intellectuals launched this petition for freedom of expression, published by El Watan …

Writer N. V. Sankaran – also known as Gnani – has taken the ‘procedural practice’ of submitting threatre scripts to police for prior approval to be tried at the Madras High Court. This was reported by Times of India Unlike other states in India, theatre groups in Tamil Nadu must …

  Following the punk group Pussy Riot’s protest song in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral on 21 February 2012, Russian authorities arrested three women who are held in detention until their case comes before court on 24 June. Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were arrested on 4 March 2012 and Ekaterina …

This study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of censorship in Lebanon. The publishers hope “it will allow the many local artistic and cultural actors the opportunity to lobby for the most appropriate legislative amendments to the current censorship regulations which are currently not conducive to their work.” The study …

Mohammad Mirzamani, the General Director of the Music Office in the Ministry of Culture in Tehran, told that a new music censorship law is being prepared by the ministry concerning how to receive permission for performing a concert or publishing a music album. According to the new censorship law, music …