Article: Harvard Punishes Free Speech in India (Huffington Post)

By Cleo Paskal

It's going from bad to worse to farce for free speech in India. In fact, by the time you reach the end of this blog, its contents might be illegal on the subcontinent.

First, a few months ago, India's Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal decided that Indians were texting too much -- the fact that texting played a role in coalescing and coordination of the unprecedented anti-corruption movement was, of course, simply coincidence. So he declared he was going to cap texts to 100 messages per day per SIM card (phone number).

Businesses that rely on texts for bookings and confirmations, like cab companies, were thrown into disarray. The uproar was so great, Sibal relented. Sort of. The cap is now 200 messages per day per SIM, forcing some businesses to buy multiple phone numbers to meet their texting demands, and leaving many Indian teenagers practically incommunicado.

New Chatham House video

Cleo is one of the Chatham House experts featured in a new video explaining what the House does:

Australian Strategic Policy Institute report on the Pacific quotes Cleo's research

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has published an interesting report on Australia's relationship with with Pacific called Our near abroad: Australia and Pacific islands regionalism. Cleo, referred to as a "sympathetic analyst", is one of the regional experts quoted in the paper. The paper can be found here. The New Zealand Herald article about the paper, which also refers to Cleo, can be found here. 

Review of Global Warring in Environmental Politics

Michel Gueldry from the Monterey Institute of International Studies reviewed Global Warring for Environmental Politics. A short excerpt: "this is a rich book, well worth reading." Thanks Michel!