Archive for December, 2011
Sunday, December 18th, 2011
Václav Havel, dissident, playwright, first president of the Czech
Republic, and author of Charter 77 died today.
Samuel Beckett wrote a play for Havel when he was in jail. On being freed, Havel returned the favour.
It was the making of a great dramatic double-act. In 2009, Index on Censorship editor Jo Glanville reflected on the relationship between the two
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Friday, December 16th, 2011
Chinese
state media reported on Friday that human rights lawyer
Gao Zhisheng will be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation rules. In 2006 Gao was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “subversion of state power”, being given five years of probation. In 2009 he was taken from a relative’s home in Shaanxi province, northern
China, resurfacing briefly in March 2010 and alleging he had been tortured. He disappeared again soon after.
Friday, December 16th, 2011
A gunman has
shot and killed a newspaper founder in
Russia’s North Caucasus region. Gadzhimurat Kamalov, who founded the newspaper
Chernovik, was shot eight times as he left the newspaper office in Dagestan province, shortly before midnight on Thursday. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Chernovik is renowned for its investigation of government corruption. Journalists in Russia who cover corruption face serious risks. There have been 19 unsolved murders of journalists in Russia since 2000.
Friday, December 16th, 2011
In its punitive treatment of accused leaker Bradley Manning, the US government has missed an opportunity to live up to its values of freedom, says Heather Brooke
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Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Detained staff from a
Zimbabwean media monitoring project have
been refused bail. Advocacy officers Molly Chimhanda and Fadzai December from
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ), and an another MMPZ member, Gilbert Mabusa, were arrested on
5 December. The three were granted bail of US$50 by a Gwanda magistrate, but the state subsequently suspended that ruling. As the bail order has been suspended, Chinhanda, December and Mabusa must now the filing of an appeal to the High Court by the state within seven days.
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
A
Ukranian court has
dropped the case against a former president accused of ordering the
killing of a journalist. Former president Leonid Kuchma was accused of being involved in the murder of Georgy Gongadze by a former interior ministry official who
admitted to strangling the journalist earlier this year. Gongadze was found decapitated after being abducted in Kiev in 2000. Secret audio recordings apparently incriminating the former president were also heard in court, but Kuchma has continually denied any involvement in the murder. Gongadze was founder of the Ukrainska Pravda website, and was often critical of the Ukrainian leader.
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
The
Chinese government is
planning to tighten its already strict film censorship rules. A proposal from the State Council, released on their website earlier today, is part of a draft law which proposes to ban anti-government sentiments and messages of religious fanaticism from the cinema screen. If passed, the bill, which comes during a box-office boom in China, will increase the number of
banned subjects in Chinese cinema to 13. Another proposed ban could also prevent any film from “promoting” illegal drugs or terrorist activity.
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
As the controversy surrounding high profile defamation case of RTE and Father Kevin Reynolds continues, Michael Foley explores the involvement of the Irish government
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