Archive for April, 2008
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
The increasingly farcical Olympic torch relay made its way to California yesterday. Lucie Morilllon of Reporters Without Borders was there
After the London and Paris demonstrations that disrupted the Olympics torch relay and angered Chinese officials, the world’s eyes were on San Francisco — the next city scheduled to welcome, 9 April, the symbol of the most controversial Games since Moscow 1980. A large proportion of the city’s population is Asian. The day before, exactly four months before the opening ceremony in Beijing, thousands of people attended a pro-Tibet rally and vigil with speeches by Desmond Tutu and actor Richard Gere. Other demonstrations had taken place before that event, including one involving activists who climbed the Golden Gate Bridge to display ‘Free Tibet’ flags. Protesters were warming up for the next day, as were the San Francisco police, the city’s officials, and the Beijing Olympic Committee. The route had already been shortened from eight to six miles, and was announced at the last minute in a clear attempt to prevent demonstrators from making plans well in advance. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had made sure that he would have some flexibility in addressing the issue. He said that the route could be changed at any time, depending upon how the situation evolved.
The torch relay was originally scheduled to start off at 1pm from McCovey Cove, follow the waterfront to Fisherman’s Wharf, and head back to Justin Herman Plaza. I decided to go out to keep track of the demonstrations at about 10.30am. My hotel was a couple of blocks from the Embarcadero. As soon as I left, I bumped into a group of pro-Tibet demonstrators, all carrying flags and posters. I followed them down the avenue. On our way, we encountered groups of pro-Chinese government protestors carrying huge Chinese and Bejing 2008 flags. The Chinese authorities had obviously decided to play the PR game and send their own people to counter the visibility of their opponents. The closer we got to the Justin Herman Plaza, where the closing ceremony was supposed to take place, the more the various groups of protesters began to intermingle and confront each other, sometimes resorting to verbal provocation and insults. A group of Olympic supporters came across some Tibetan monks and started yelling at them. At this stage I was worried that even a single gesture could turn the situation violent. But the Tibetan monks went on, while their followers made peace signs. The pro-Chinese protesters were playing drums to drown out the loud heckling on one side and cheers on the other.
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Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Arms trade campaigners are celebrating today, after a London judge decided that the director of the Serious Fraud Office should not have dropped an investigation into a multi-billion dollar arms deal. Padraig Reidy reports
A court ruled today that the British government was wrong to intervene in a Serious Fraud Office investigation into dealings between BAE and the Saudi government.
The government had ordered the investigation to be halted, claiming it presented a threat to national security. It was alleged that the Saudi government had said it would no longer co-operate in intelligence and security if the investigation went any further.
In a ruling issued this morning, Lord Justice Moses said: ‘It is obvious, in the present case, that the decision to halt the investigation suited the objectives of the executive. Stopping the investigation avoided uncomfortable consequences, both commercial and diplomatic. Whilst we have accepted the evidence as to the grounds of the decision, in future cases, absent a principle of necessity, it would be all too tempting to use a threat as a ground for convenient conclusion: we fear for the reputation of the administration of justice if it can be perverted by a threat.’
He continued: ‘Our courts and lawyers have the luxury and privilege of common law and statutory protection against power which threatens the rule of law. All the more important, then, that they provide support and encouragement to those in a less happy position. How do they do so, if they endorse surrender, when in Uganda the courts are forced to resist when those whom they have released on bail are re-arrested on the court-room steps by armed agents of the executive, or when the Chief Justices of Fiji and Pakistan are deposed by military rulers?’
Symon Hill of Campaign Against the Arms Trade, which brought the case along with Corner House, said that the judgment upheld the principle ‘that might is not right, and the law should operate without fear, favour or prejudice’.
Susan Hawley of Corner House commented that ‘the ruling has strengthened our securities and freedoms’.
The judgment means the director of the Serious Fraud Office must now decide whether to appeal the decision, and whether to re-open the investigation.
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Motor racing supremo Max Mosley has failed in his attempt to stop the
News of the World from publishing an extract from a video of him with several prostitutes on its website.
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Monday, April 7th, 2008
A new Indonesian law poses the threat of restrictions on the arts, writes David Jardine
The Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR), after very lengthy debate, has passed into law a bill aimed at outlawing online pornography — this despite the document containing an unclear definition of what constitutes ‘pornography’.
The protracted debate — the bill was introduced in 2005 — has concluded with what appears to be a formula allowing religious legislators to insert easily manipulated concepts such as ‘immorality’ into the law.
Some observers, including Zatni Arbi, the country’s leading information technology commentator, have warned that the new law, which criminalizes the provision, use and transmission of pornographic websites, might in the future be used to shut down other websites carrying information and opinion deemed by the government to be unacceptable.
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Friday, April 4th, 2008
Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin are trying to stifle debate in Belfast’s media, writes Anthony McIntyre
Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin is the current Westminster MP for West Belfast. For decades he rightly campaigned against censorship policies crafted by successive British and Irish governments for the purposes of undermining his party. British readers may recall him as the only member of the House of Commons they could see but not hear. On each occasion that he appeared on TV over a six-year period from 1988, an actor’s voice was used to dub his words. On radio he was neither seen nor heard, the dubbing procedure again in play. It was only one of a range of draconian measures applied to silence him and his party. Former Irish Journalist of the Year Ed Moloney has repeatedly asserted that such censorship prohibited dialogue and consequently prolonged Northern Ireland’s violent conflict.
Although a victim of harsh political censorship, Adams’ disinclination to use this invidious tool of political repression has been less than salutary. Never a figure at ease with even the mildest form of political criticism, he has persistently sought to undermine those who do not see the world through his eyes and who are prepared to voice their misgivings publicly. Virtually everyone who has left Sinn Féin since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement a decade ago has highlighted the suppression of debate among their reasons for quitting. Adams has no record of speaking out against those murdered, kidnapped or beaten by his party’s military wing simply because they chose to dissent from his political project. On occasion Adams has hit out at those daring enough to have a public ‘poke’ at his leadership. Elsewhere he has been on record saying that people should not be allowed to even think that there is any alternative to the Good Friday Agreement. There is no concession to the idea that without audacious thinking, West Belfast intellectual life would be even more restricted than it currently is.
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Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Journalist Ibrahim Eissa faces a prison sentence for his criticism of President Mubarak. The government’s intention to intimidate the free press is all too clear, writes Amira Howeidy
On 26 March a Cairo court sentenced Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent Al Dostour newspaper, to six months in prison for publishing a series of articles on 79-year-old president Hosni Mubarak’s health.
Eissa has the right to appeal the ruling, which he probably will, knowing all too well that he’ll end up in one of Egypt’s notorious prisons anyway.
This 42-year-old critic of the Mubarak regime still faces at least four other court cases concerning articles deemed ‘insulting’ to figures in the ruling party and, again, the president.
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Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
The New York State Legislature has passed a law protecting American journalists from defamation lawsuits brought against them overseas. The Libel Terrorism Protection Act, known as ‘Rachel’s Law’, was introduced after Rachel Ehrenfeld was successfully sued for libel in the UK by Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi businessman she alleged had financed terrorism.
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Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
A young Saudi woman was murdered by her father last August after he discovered she had been engaging in online chats on Facebook. There are thought to be as many as 30,000 Facebook users in Saudi Arabia, and the site offers several popular dating and singles forums. This is rare in a society where contact outside of strict family and class structures largely remains taboo.
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