Monday, May 24th, 2010
On May 12, the Honduran supreme court ratified its earliar decision
to dismiss four lower-court judges who are members of Judges for Democracy, a group that has challenged the legality of the coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya last year. Two of the judges, including the president of the group, were removed for participating in public demonstrations calling for Zelaya to be reinstated. The judges have started an indefinite
hunger strike as a protest.
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Eritrea has held Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak without charge for eight years. The west must stand up to this brutal regime, says his brother Esayas Isaak
(more…)
Friday, May 21st, 2010
As the Mail on Sunday continues to take criticism for reporting the taped conversations of the FA chief, Brian Cathcart asks if it’s ever right to secretly record private conversations
(more…)
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Peruvian community radio activists honoured in Lima. Ángel García Català reports
(more…)
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Blogger and author Zoe Margolis has been awarded a “five-figure” amount in costs and damages from the Independent on Sunday after the newspaper wrongly labelled her a “hooker”.
Margolis’s whose blog
Girl With A One Track Mind became famous for its frank descriptions of her sex life and discussions of female sexuality. In March, she wrote an
article for the Independent on Sunday about the effect of losing her blogging anonymity had ultimately had a positive effect on her life. An unnamed Independent on Sunday subeditor wrongly wrote a headline describing Margolis as a former hooker.
In a statement read at the High Court in London today, the Independent on Sunday said it sincerely apologised for the “distress and embarrassment [the] headline caused”.
Speaking to Index on Censorship after the court hearing, Margolis said: “I am very relieved. This was about as damaging an allegation as could have been made, and it undermined the point I try to make in my writing about female sexuality and sex for sale.”
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Film-maker
Jafar Panahi has been imprisoned in Iran since 1 March after the government accused him of making a documentary about last year’s presidential election. He was to be on the Palme d’Or judging panel at the Cannes film festival this week where fellow Iranian film-maker, Abbas Kiarostami, called his arrest an “attack on art” and launched an appeal for his release on 18 May. Panahi has reportedly begun a
hunger strike until he is allowed to meet with a lawyer, see his family and be released.
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
A new report highlights the way China targeted Tibetan intellectuals and artists in response to Tibet’s spring 2008 protests writes Kate Saunders
There has been a vibrant literary and cultural resurgence in Tibet since spring 2008, when protests against Chinese government policy and in support of the Dalai Lama swept across the plateau.
A new generation of Tibetan intellectuals, often fluent in Chinese and familiar with digital technology, are daring to refute China’s official narrative. Their critiques are among the most wide-ranging indictments of Chinese policy in Tibet for 50 years.
In response, there is a deepening crackdown by the Chinese government against Tibetan writers, bloggers, artists, and other intellectuals in the public sphere. For the first time since the Cultural Revolution, writers, intellectuals, singers and artists in Tibet are being systematically targeted for their work, and almost every expression of Tibetan identity can be accused of being “reactionary” or “splittist”. Tashi Dhondup, a popular singer from Amdo (now Qinghai), , is in a labour camp as a result of singing songs referring to Tibetans’ grief at the killings of March 2008. Kunchok Tsephel, the founder of a website promoting Tibetan culture, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in November. Bloggers, artists and other intellectuals, including an artist who taught the Tibetan language to nomad children, have ‘disappeared’.
Although less well-known outside China than high-profile Chinese dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo and Hu Jia, many of the intellectuals named are famous among Tibetans, and are also enduring long prison terms for peaceful expression. Their concerns about restrictions and repression mirror those of their Chinese counterparts.
A new list is now available at www.savetibet.org detailing the cases of more than 50 Tibetans, including 13 writers, involved in the arts and public sphere who are either in prison, have been ‘disappeared’ or have faced torture or harassment due to expressing their views.
Since March 2008, the Chinese government has blocked news of the arrests, torture, disappearances and killings that have taken place across Tibet. The dangers faced by Tibetans who seek to describe the situation on the ground or simply express their views to the outside world have dramatically increased.
Among those named in the International Campaign for Tibet’s report are Tibetans sentenced to long prison terms for simply speaking about the crackdown via email or on the telephone. The penalties attached to these cases indicate a zero tolerance policy that is counter to China’s obligations to free speech under its own law and international human rights law.
Kate Saunders works for the International Campaign for Tibet
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
The extradition of UK hacker Gary McKinnon to the United States has been put on hold by the new Home Secretary, Theresa May. McKinnon is wanted by US authorities after he hacked into Defence Department and Nasa databases. His supporters claim that he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and is unfit to stand trial.
Read more
here
