This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Meinungsfreiheit: Türkischer Pianist wegen Twitter-Kommentaren verurt...

On 15 April 2013, the Criminal Court of Justice of Istanbul gave Turkish pianist Fazil Say a 10 month suspended jail sentence over comments on Twitter, deciding he was guilty of violating an article of the Turkish Criminal Code that forbids the “denigration of the religious values held by a section of society”.

The pianist was prosecuted in June 2012 by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office after he had posted a series of tweets on Twitter and was accused of insulting Islam, while t

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Blogger haften nicht für Kommentare Dritter

Bloggers should not be considered liable for third-party comments on their posts in cases when they have not specifically intervened in the content at issue, as doing so would strongly affect freedom of expression.

This is the clear position of the EDRi-member Article 19 that comes in relation to a case now pending with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in which a Polish municipal councillor was sued because there had been allegedly defamatory comments to one of his posts, addressed to the mayor of the town, during the electoral campaig

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales decided on 14 February 2013 that Google could be considered liable for comments posted on its Blogger platform unless it reacts promptly to a complaint.

Reversing a previous ruling in March 2012 of the High Court which considered that Google, in its platform provider role, should not be treated as a publisher, the Appeal Court ruled that the company could be liable for the content published on its blogging platform if it allowed content (in this case comments on a specific blog hosted at Blogger) to remain after having received complaints that the respective content was defamatory.

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: EGMR: Sperre von Google-Seiten in der Türkei verstößt gegen Mensche...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided on 18 December 2012 that the Turkish Court decision to block the entire Google Sites breached the Freedom of Expression as foreseen in Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

Turkey has a long history of censorship policy regarding Internet content and blocking of websites.

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Russland: Pussy Riot Videos aus dem Netz verbannt

A Moscow-based court has ruled on 29 November 2012 that four videos of the already famous dissident punk band Pussy Riot are extremist and therefore should be banned on the Russian Internet. The court said that all the Russian websites that do not comply with this obligation could pay a fine of up to approx. 2500 Euro (100 000 roubles).

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Europäische Domainnamen unter Druck

On 26 November 2012, 132 or 133 domain names were seized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (ICE) in collaboration with the Europol and national law enforcement authorities.

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Aserbaidschan: Oppositioneller Blogger verhaftet

A new arrest made by the Azeri authorities raise concerns over the freedom of speech in Azerbaijan ahead of the next year's general elections.

The well-known blogger and opposition activist Zaur Gurbanli was arrested from his home on 29 September 2012 by several people who identified themselves as members of the Interior Ministry’s organized crime department.

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [Spanische Webseite bekommt beschlagnahmte Domain zurück. Nach 18 Monaten.