Media Releases

Writers and human rights experts call on India to repeal laws that threaten free expression in world’s largest democracy

May 26, 2015

Toron­to, ON – Ear­li­er this year, India’s Min­istry of Home Affairs used an exten­sive arse­nal of vague and over­broad laws to muz­zle the world’s largest envi­ron­men­tal watch­dog, Green­peace Inter­na­tion­al.  Using seem­ing­ly innocu­ous pro­vi­sions in the Indi­an For­eign Con­tri­bu­tion (Reg­u­la­tion) Act 2010, the gov­ern­ment effec­tive­ly silenced crit­i­cism of a con­tro­ver­sial nuclear pow­er plant by freez­ing the bank account of Green­peace India.  Offi­cials jus­ti­fied their actions on the basis that Green­peace was a “threat to nation­al eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty.”

In a ground-break­ing new report, PEN Inter­na­tion­al in part­ner­ship with PEN Cana­da and the Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Pro­gram (IHRP) at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Law, call on India to repeal over­broad and vague­ly word­ed laws that enable cen­sor­ship in the world’s largest democ­ra­cy.

Impos­ing Silence: The Use of India’s Laws to Sup­press Free Speech finds that over­reach­ing leg­is­la­tion and long­stand­ing prob­lems with the admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice have pro­duced cum­ber­some legal process­es that deter cit­i­zens from exer­cis­ing their right to free expres­sion. The result­ing chill silences polit­i­cal crit­i­cism and often dis­cour­ages mar­gin­al voic­es from speak­ing out on sen­si­tive social, cul­tur­al, and reli­gious mat­ters.

The report fea­tures orig­i­nal con­tri­bu­tions from promi­nent Indi­an writ­ers tack­ling issues from free speech online and in film; to cen­sor­ship by mobs that threat­en vio­lence, file law­suits in dis­tant local courts, and demand that the state pros­e­cute writ­ers and jour­nal­ists. Arund­hati Roy, who was charged with sedi­tion over com­ments on Kash­mir, and who was inter­viewed for the report, laments the chill­ing effect that cen­sor­ship laws have on free expres­sion: ‘The most fright­en­ing thing is that any mad coot can go and lodge a com­plaint against you. It’s a seri­ous amount of harass­ment.’

The report doc­u­ments many vio­la­tions of the right to free expres­sion since Prime Min­is­ter Modi’s inau­gu­ra­tion one year ago this month. Dur­ing his first year in office, PM Modi has vis­it­ed 14 coun­tries, most recent­ly Cana­da, to pro­mote increased trade and invest­ment, but has con­sis­tent­ly failed to address human rights con­cerns. Indeed, when held to account at the Unit­ed Nations, India has con­sis­tent­ly down­played the seri­ous­ness of free­dom of expres­sion issues and avoid­ed reforms that would bring its Con­sti­tu­tion and cen­sor­ship laws in line with its inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions.

Impos­ing Silence focus­es on the legal and reg­u­la­to­ry envi­ron­ment that facil­i­tates cen­sor­ship pre­cise­ly because this is an area where the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is poised to show lead­er­ship, and includes a num­ber of tar­get­ed rec­om­men­da­tions that chart a path for­ward towards freer expres­sion in India.  ‘India’s Supreme Court has just struck down a vague law that crim­i­nal­ized offen­sive online con­tent.’ said Mar­i­an Bots­ford Fras­er, Chair of PEN International’s Writ­ers in Prison Com­mit­tee. ‘We hope this report will help the gov­ern­ment and courts fur­ther review laws that silence dis­sent, and move for­ward with the nec­es­sary repeals and reforms.’

‘Vague and over­broad laws that are eas­i­ly abused run con­trary to India’s inter­na­tion­al human rights  oblig­a­tions,’ said Renu Mand­hane, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the IHRP. ‘For­tu­nate­ly, many of the legal issues that restrict free speech in India could be resolved quick­ly, and rel­a­tive­ly inex­pen­sive­ly, if there is suf­fi­cient polit­i­cal will to do so.’

‘Urgent reforms are need­ed to pre­vent fur­ther abus­es,’ said Tasleem Thawar, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of PEN Cana­da, ‘for although vex­a­tious law­suits often fail, or are with­drawn, the cur­rent sys­tem allows legal pro­ceed­ings to linger for so long that they near­ly always suc­ceed in silenc­ing crit­i­cal speech and dis­suad­ing oth­ers from speak­ing out.’

The Pres­i­dent of PEN Inter­na­tion­al, John Ral­ston Saul, notes ‘India’s fail­ure to pro­tect speech is espe­cial­ly sig­nif­i­cant, as the nation rep­re­sents one sixth of human­i­ty, and is an emerg­ing pow­er in the region.’ PEN Inter­na­tion­al and its part­ners expect to trav­el to India to meet with law­mak­ers pri­or to India’s Uni­ver­sal Peri­od­ic Review by the UN Human Rights Coun­cil in 2017.
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For more infor­ma­tion and to sched­ule inter­views, please con­tact:
Bren­dan de Caires: bdecaires@pencanada.ca | t. +1 416 703 8448 x21

Avail­able for inter­view:
Renu Mand­hane, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, IHRP
Tasleem Thawar, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, PEN Cana­da
Salil Tri­pathi, writer and con­trib­u­tor
Mar­i­an Bots­ford Fras­er, Chair of PEN International’s Writ­ers in Prison Com­mit­tee

Ann Har­ri­son, Pro­gramme Direc­tor, Writ­ers in Prison Com­mit­tee, PEN Inter­na­tion­al

The report is avail­able online at: www.pen-international.org.
Social Media: #PEN­Re­portIn­dia
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PEN Inter­na­tion­al cel­e­brates lit­er­a­ture and pro­motes free­dom of expres­sion. Found­ed in 1921, our glob­al com­mu­ni­ty of writ­ers now com­pris­es 144 Cen­tres span­ning more than 100 coun­tries. Our pro­grammes, cam­paigns, events and pub­li­ca­tions con­nect writ­ers and read­ers for glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty and coop­er­a­tion. PEN Inter­na­tion­al is a non-polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tion and holds con­sul­ta­tive sta­tus at the Unit­ed Nations and UNESCO. www.pen-international.org

PEN Cana­da is a non­par­ti­san orga­ni­za­tion of writ­ers that works with oth­ers to defend free­dom of expres­sion as a basic human right at home and abroad. PEN Cana­da pro­motes lit­er­a­ture, fights cen­sor­ship, helps free per­se­cut­ed writ­ers from prison, and assists writ­ers liv­ing in exile in Cana­da. www.pencanada.ca

The Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Pro­gram (IHRP) at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Law enhances the legal pro­tec­tion of exist­ing and emerg­ing inter­na­tion­al human rights oblig­a­tions through advo­ca­cy, knowl­edge-exchange, and capac­i­ty-build­ing ini­tia­tives that pro­vide expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents and legal exper­tise to civ­il society.www.ihrp.law.utoronto.ca