Archive for December, 2009
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
The BBC has come under fire for pulling sections of the Sergei Diaghilev ballet from its Christmas television schedule after discovering it featured a deformed Pope who rapes nuns. BBC4 was due to show Eternal Damnation to Sancho and Sanchez in a pre-watershed slot over Christmas. The shows producer Javier de Frutos has hit back saying he believes the decision is “silly as well as dangerous”. Composer Thomas Adès added: “To pull it from the programme is a shocking, terrible mistake, and shows a disgraceful, pathetic and worrying loss of nerve on the part of the BBC.” Read more
here
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Index on Censorship and English PEN today have expressed dismay that the BBC has conceded the libel action brought by toxic waste shippers Trafigura in the High Court. We believe this is a case of such high public interest that it was incumbent upon a public sector broadcaster like the BBC to have held their ground in order to test in a Court of law the truth of the BBC’s report or determine whether a vindication of Trafigura was deserved.
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Thursday, December 17th, 2009
The BBC has today withdrawn claims made on flagship news programme Newsnight that oil-trading company Trafigura caused deaths in the Ivory Coast after toxic waste was dumped there. in a settlement designed to head off a potentially massively expensive libel case, the BBC will make a small donation to charity at Trafigura’s request.
While other sources, including the British government, claimed that Trafigura’s actions had caused deaths in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast’s largest city, Newsnight was unable to independently verify the claim.
Sources at the BBC say the corporation faced up to £3 million in legal costs if it defended the case against Trafigura.
Read BBC court statement
here
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Barack Obama’s promise to break with secrecy has been short-lived, says Melissa Goodman, in an exclusive article for Index on Censorship”s review of 2009
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Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
The proposed anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda threatens free expression not only for the gay community, but for all says Risdel Kasasira (more…)
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Several people have been arrested in Tehran over the tearing up of a picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during anti-government demonstrations last week. State television broadcast footage of what it claimed were opposition supporters tearing up and trampling on a picture of Khomeini during an anti-government student-led demonstration. All of those arrested are currently being held in detention although Iranian authorities have refused to give names or numbers. Read more
here
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
China has banned individuals from registering internet domain names and launched a review of millions of existing personal websites in the toughest government censorship drive so far on the internet reports the Financial Times. China has banned the registration of domains for personal use unless they are operated by licensed businesses or state-approved organisations. It is part of the government’s “fight against pornographic websites” according the the official China Daily. Read more
here
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
The Australian government has announced that it is to go ahead with controversial internet censorship plans after trials of the new filtering system were found to be accurate. The filter laws will be introduced in parliament in August 2010 and will take a year to implement. Critics said the trial results were not surprising and the policy was still fundamentally flawed. Read more
here
