Archive for January, 2011

Afghanistan: Acid attack on reporter

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Afghan police are searching for the men who threw acid on a prominent Afghan TV reporter and author. Tuesday’s attack on Razaq Mamoon has left his face disfigured. Mamoon is the author of The Footprint of Pharaoh, which criticises Iranian interference in Afghanistan, he has allegedly claimed that his attackers were Iranian agents.

Keeping it quiet

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Tony Blair’s appearance at the Iraq inquiry is a test of the competing principles of free expression and confidentiality. John Kampfner asks who should decide what the public hears?

Tony Blair would not appreciate being likened to Julian Assange. The feeling would, I am sure, be entirely mutual. Yet there is a link of sorts between these two figures, so controversial in their very different ways. It revolves around the notion of confidentiality.

The lead-up to the former prime minister’s second appearance before the Iraq enquiry has been dominated by the issue of private correspondence. The refusal by the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, to accede to the request of the committee chairman, Sir John Chilcot, to release the full musings of Blair and ex-president George Bush is based around a question similar to the one relating to the industrial dumping of US State Department documents. When are the musings of individual officials or politicians public documents and when are they private?

In both cases the competing principles of free expression and confidence stumble on each other, head to head. Assange and his allies argue their case mainly around public interest. The world, he insists, should know all the dirty deeds of dastardly diplomats. A more convincing argument in his favour might be that no serious organisation could remotely hope to keep a single email secret if circulated to 2.5m people, as was apparently the case with the US diplomatic service.

As for the Blair/Bush love-in, the case for secrecy is undermined by Blair’s own decision to publish some of the discussions in his memoirs. Furthermore, written memos between world leaders could surely not qualify as “private”. Telephone calls, presumably yes, but not the written word.

As the Daily Telegraph commented in a leader article this week:

The public deserves to get the fullest possible account of why this country went to war on the basis of what turned out to be misleading intelligence. For many, this remains the rawest of issues; if we are ever to put it behind us, the inquiry must be seen to be as thorough and open as possible. Reaching sensible conclusions almost eight years after the invasion began will be difficult enough without the inquiry being fettered in this way.

In the spirit, we are sure, of free expression, a furious Chilcot decided to publish his exchange of letters with O’Donnell. The committee chairman suggests, in quintessential mandarin style, that he would be “disappointed” if Blair proved less forthcoming in his evidence than in his book.

Otherwise, the Telegraph concludes, “it will appear that Mr Blair is happy to breach the confidentiality of office for a lucrative book deal, but not to inform the British public of the process that led him to send our troops to war”.

John Kampfner is the chief executive of Index on Censorship

Zambia: Journalists charged with sedition

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Nyambe Muyumbana of Radio Lyambai and Mwala Kalaluka of the Post newspaper have been charged with sedition. The charges relate to coverage of the protests for greater autonomy in the Western Province of Zambia.  The office of Radio Lyambai has also been shut due to confiscation of office equipment.

UK: US pastor banned from UK

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Pastor Terry Jones has been banned from entering the UK. Terry Jones is the controversial pastor who attempted to burn the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11.

Uganda: Editor detained over cartoon

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

The chief executive officer and managing director of Business Summit Review was detained on January 11 after the magazine ran a cover cartoon depicting Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni slicing up a cake in celebration of 48 years of Uganda’s independence. Mustapha Mugisa was released a few hours after his arrest but faces charges of political offence.

Sudan: Opposition leader arrested

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Security officials arrested an Islamist opposition figure in his home in Khartoum on Monday. Hassan al-Turabi was taken into custody a day after he called for a “popular revolution” if the price increases on basic goods were not reversed. In an interview with AFP al-Turabi had said that similar developments to Tunisia could unfold in Sudan. He has been imprisoned and released several times since 2000 when he left Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s ruling party.

Turkey’s free speech problems

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Censorship in Turkey is largely motivated by deep-rooted nationalism. Jennifer Amur explains the issues
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Chilcot Inquiry will not publish Blair notes to Bush

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Britain’s top civil servant, Sir Gus O’Donnell, has refused permission for notes between former prime minister Tony Blair and former US president George Bush to be published by the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war. Head of the Inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, has said the notes — which he has seen — are “central to his work”. But civil servants say their publication could harm Britain’s relations with the US. Read more here