Express Audio, the podcast division of The Indian Express, is excited to present a live panel discussion around freedom of expression featuring Dhanya Rajendran, (Editor-in-Chief, The News Minute), Urmila Pullat (Human Rights lawyer and researcher and Founder of HowRevealing), Sunil Abraham (Executive Director, Center for Internet and Society), Angarika Guha (Maraa, the media and arts collective) and Nayantara Ranganathan (Internet Democracy Project). After the success of the podcast series Awaaz Do (https://indianexpress.com/audio/awaaz-do-an-indian-express-series/) , we bring you this event at The Courtyard, with a broadcast of the live audio. Sharing information online can be empowering, but the internet can also be a tool for control, with its own counterweights that threaten to diminish our freedom of speech. How do we balance the two sides of the internet? How do we juggle the right to express your option with the right to be safe from hate speech and online abuse? Our panel of experts, including the editor of the online news portal The News Minute and the director of the Centre for Internet and Society, will dive deep into issues of censorship, hate speech on social media, internet shutdowns, social movements online, obscenity laws and more.

Awaaz Do: An Indian Express Series

Awaaz Do: A panel discussion about freedom of speech on the internet

For the finale of Awaaz Do, we look at how people are fighting to defend freedom of speech and expression across communities in India. Dalit hip hop artist Sumeet Samos talks about how music gave him a platform to talk about caste issues. Human rights campaigner Shabnam Hashmi discusses the power of cultural resistance. Ex Jadavpur University student Srishti Dutta Chowdhury talks about the Hok Kolorob movement in Kolkata, which saw thousands of people stand in solidarity with a sexual assault victim from her university. Raman Jit Singh Chima draws the spotlight on how digital rights activists are fighting to preserve free speech on the internet. Last, we ask people what they would say if they could speak freely. You can follow us and leave us feedback on Facebook and Twitter @expresspodcasts. If you like this show, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes so other people can find us. Our entire podcast catalogue is available on indianexpress.com/audio.

4: Awaaz Do finale: Defending our Freedom of Speech and Expression

On the second episode of the Awaaz Do podcast series, we delve into the many ways in which speech and expression are restricted. First, we talk to Shehla Rashid Shora, the ex Vice President of the JNU Student's Union, about organised trolling, threats and harassment over social media leading to self-censorship and how colloquially ubiquitous words like sedition and anti-national have become. Next, Urmila Pullat, a human rights lawyer at the Asian Human Rights Commission, talks about the reasonable restrictions on free speech and expression listed in our constitution. Are these restrictions being misused to shut down dissent? Last, we explore the threat of obscenity laws with Smita Vanniyar, who works with issues regarding gender, sexuality and technology at the Mumbai-based non-profit Point of View.

3: How is free speech restricted?

Why does free speech matter? More importantly, who needs it the most? In the first episode of Awaaz Do, we talk to Javed Tak, a disability rights activist from Jammu and Kashmir, about his experiences with freedom, and what he's found that the youth of Kashmir want. We also explore why free speech is essential for upholding democracy with Shehla Rashid Shora. Is the right to free speech available to everyone equally though? Shabnam Hashmi, who has worked as a human rights campaigner for 37 years now, explains why those at the margins do not always have the liberty of being heard. Last, we discuss the immense power free speech has with Colin Gonsalves, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India and founder of the Human Rights Law Network. You can follow us and leave us feedback on Facebook and Twitter @expresspodcasts. If you like this show, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes so other people can find us. Our entire podcast catalogue is available on https://indianexpress.com/audio.

2: What does freedom mean to you?

What exactly is freedom of speech? How does one exercise it and defend it? More importantly, why does it matter? And why should you, as a citizen, care about it? In our latest podcast series, Awaaz Do, Neha Mathews attempts to answer these questions through conversations with activists, lawyers, artists and others, and uncovers the various ways in which our free speech is restricted.

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Awaaz Do: An Indian Express Series

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