Archive for August, 2010
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Police in eastern Ukraine have reclassified the case of a missing journalist as ”
premeditated murder“. Vasyl Klymentyev, chief editor and reporter for newspaper Novyi Stil, was
last seen on 11 August getting into a BMW with an unknown man. The Kharkiv-based weekly newspaper is well known for reporting on corruption in local government and law enforcement. Klymentyev’s most recent articles criticised a local prosecutor and head of the regional fiscal police, and the
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged investigators to focus on his journalism as a motive.
Klymentyev’s deputy said that the editor had been threatened several times before and had been offered bribes to keep damaging information quiet.
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Carlos Flores, winner of the Index on Censorship and Guardian award for Journalism has
won his fight to have his radio licence returned. Flores’ radio station, Radio La Voz, was
closed by the Peruvian government for allegedly inciting violence in Bagua Grande in June 2009, when indigenous groups and villagers
clashed with security forces. No official charges were ever brought against Flores. Just a few weeks ago Flores had travelled over 400km to attend a
scheduled meeting regarding the reopening of the station, only to be met by a junior minister and told Radio La Voz would remain closed.
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
The Bosnian Central Parliament is to discuss
new legislation on 1 September that would ban the wearing of a face veil, or niqab. The new law would impose a 24-hour curfew on veiled women, and those violating the ban could be fined 50 euros. Muslim women held a protest outside the Central Parliament in Sarajevo after the proposal was made by the Bosnian Serb Party of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD).
France and
Syria have already banned the veil, and the
Netherlands and
Belgium are considering similar legislation.
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
Defence secretary Liam Fox has called for shops to ban a computer game that allows players to act as the Taliban and kill Nato troops. Fox said he was “
disgusted and angry“ and called the game “un-British”. The
updated version of Medal of Honour, due for release in October, gives players the choice of which side to represent in its multiplayer mode. A spokesperson for the game’s publishers Electronic Arts said the format “merely reflects the fact that every conflict has two sides”. The Department of Media, Culture and Sport has distanced itself from Fox’s “
personal view“.
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
An opposition leader and two other activists have been charged with “resisting police” and “
holding an unsanctioned march“. Former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov was arrested, along with activist Mikhail Schneider and human rights campaigner Lev Ponomaryov, at a march marking Russia’s National Flag Day on 22 August. The men were
detained at a Moscow police department and later a magistrate’s court, before being released early this morning. All three deny the charges and say that they were simply walking down the street carrying a flag. The court hearing is expected to continue on 24 August.
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
In 2009 the Home Office published a list of names of “individuals banned from the United Kingdom for stirring up hatred”. Two Minutes of Hate is a series of excerpts from the men’s speeches, interviews and trial proceedings, read by actor Eoin McMarthy, one of the voice of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, during the broadcast ban on Sinn Féin members introduced by the UK government in 1988 . The reading, originally created as a video installation for gallery by Ichor Agency Ltd, will be followed by a panel discussion – speakers to be confirmed.
Part of the FLOW Free Word Festival
5pm, 20 September 2010, Free Word Centre, London
Friday, August 20th, 2010
South Korea has begun b
locking access to a Twitter account opened by a North Korean website. The blocking appears to be aimed solely at @Uriminzok Twitter account’s main page address, which has provided North Korea with a platform for propaganda messages.
Friday, August 20th, 2010
Index on Censorship celebrates the launch of its new magazine on music and free expression with performances by the Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat and oud player Khyam Allam at the Free Word Centre.
Mahsa Vahdat is winner of the Freemuse Award 2010.
Khyam Allami is the first recipient of BBC Radio 3′s World Routes Academy scholarship and made his debut at Womad and the Proms this summer.
Index on Censorship invites you to join the festivities and tune into Smashed Hits 2.0 Live.
To reserve a place, call 020 7324 2570 or click here
6:30pm. 21 September 2010. Free Word Centre, London
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