scorecardresearch
Add as a preferred source on Google
Thursday, May 21, 2026
TopicFreedom of speech

Topic: Freedom of speech

Tollywood’s toxic fandom now has state support. Pawan Kalyan joke arrests are abuse of power

Last week, I received a frantic text from a friend who is a stand-up comedian. It was about his colleague Anudeep Katikala, who was...

Patel’s 1950 letter to Nehru: Find no legal power to deal with Press or men like Syama Prasad

Less than a year before the First Constitutional Amendment, Patel wrote to Nehru about Supreme Court rulings that had 'knocked the bottom out' of press control laws.

How Nehru defended restrictions on freedom of speech and the press

On 29 May 1951, Jawaharlal Nehru defended adding 'reasonable restrictions' to Article 19, arguing that free speech must be balanced with national security and unity.

‘It’s one thing to be woke but…’ Supreme Court tells ‘Ghooskhor Pandat’ makers to change film’s title

SC was hearing a PIL that demanded a stay on the release of the movie, claiming that it promotes stereotyping, and hurts the dignity and sentiments of Brahmins.

Is freedom of speech a dangerous idea? JLF closing panel couldn’t find an answer

At the closing debate of JLF, Pavan K Varma posed a question that had the crowd in an uproar. ‘Would you want to be in jail without bail,’ he said, referring to Umar Khalid.

Nothing suits dictatorship more than a subservient judiciary: Justice HR Khanna

The totalitarian states indeed are never tired of claiming a legal basis for their action and are too eager to make use of conventional legal institutions to further their ends, said Justice HR Khanna in 1980.

Hearing ‘India’s Got Latent’ case, SC says right to dignity greater than right to free speech

New Delhi: In a very significant development, the top court Tuesday said that the right to live with dignity is more important than the...

The world sees Ali Khan Mahmudabad’s arrest first, not all-party delegations

Are we saying that, as a nation, we can’t handle different ideas? That we're too fragile to disagree? If free speech comes with warnings about timing and tone, then is it really free?

Delhi scholars decry Mahmudabad’s arrest. ‘If I had a Muslim name, I’d be arrested too’

'The victims of the Pahalgam massacre are being insulted by the actions taken against Mahmudabad,' said the president of the Federation of Central University Teachers Association.

There’s a gap between what Ali Khan Mahmudabad said and what he’s accused of—basic literacy

Our Foreign Secretary said citizens criticising their own government is the hallmark of any open and functioning democracy. And yet here we are.

On Camera

Norway’s Modi cartoon was not satire. Just colonial laziness

Political satire is indispensable to democracy, racial caricature isn’t. If Europe’s liberal press still cannot tell difference, then decolonisation never happened in their imagination.

Recovery of unclaimed shares, dividends now takes days, not yrs. EAC-PM credits investor watchdog revamp

PM-EAC paper says overhaul of Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority system sharply improved processing speed and reduced paperwork for investors.

Dragon’s armour: How Xi reshaped China’s military with theatre commands a decade before India’s push

While India yet to set in motion theaterisation of armed forces, China's military reforms combined China’s Army, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force aimed at regional dominance & tight political control.

Pakistan is tactically brilliant, strategically disastrous. It’s primed for repeated blunders

Pakistan has ended up losing every war against India but that hasn’t prevented it from claiming victory. We will go over the evidence to anticipate what to expect next.