Posts Tagged ‘BBC’
April 14th, 2010
Islamist insurgents have
banned music from radio broadcasts claiming its un-Islamic. Stations have already complied with the order, issued at the beginning of April, as workers feared for their safety. The
BBC report that all but two of the Mogadishu’s 15 radio stations used to broadcast music.
Last week, the armed Islamic group al-Shabaab banned the re-broadcast of BBC productions in Somalia, claiming they were against Muslisms and Islam.
April 6th, 2010
A publisher
should not be held responsible for a libel created by the out-of-context publication of material by a search engine, the High Court
has ruled. Even if a snippet has a libellous meaning neither the search engine nor the publisher should be liable, the Court said. Sam Budu took the case against the BBC over articles published on a website in 2004 which detailed his dealings with the Cambridgeshire police. A first article on the BBC’s website said that a person had been denied a job when it was discovered he was an illegal immigrant. The second and third articles named Budu but detailed his counter-claims that he was in the UK legally. Budu sued over both stories, and the snippets which appeared in Google, arguing that they constituted a separate publication of the articles.
December 21st, 2009
Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said the BBC may be sanctioned if comments made by the public on its website do not comply with Labour’s new anti-discrimination laws. The move follows public criticism pver the BBC hosting an online debate on its news website asking whether gays should be executed in relation to a proposed anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda. Mark Stephens, a media lawyer who has been leading a commonwealth campaign against a proposed law in Uganda said: “ We must protect freedom of speech whether it is offensive or not. The alternative is to drive the debate underground.” Read more
here
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
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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November 5th, 2009
Launch of the Libel Reform campaign and the English PEN and Index on Censorship “Free Speech Is Not For Sale” report
12 – 2pm, 10th November 09. Light lunch provided.
Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA
Index on Censorship and English PEN fear:
“We’re becoming a global free speech pariah”
“Our libel laws allow people accused of funding terrorism or dumping toxic waste in Africa to silence their critics whilst ‘super-injunctions’ stop the public from even knowing that such allegations exist. We need to reform our libel laws now, and that’s why we’re launching a national campaign to persuade our politicians to do so.”
Jonathan Heawood, Director of English PEN
“If we don’t act we’re at risk of becoming a global pariah. There are US States who view English libel law as so damaging to free speech they have passed laws to effectively block the decisions of English judges. Our report is an important milestone in modernising our antiquated and chilling approach to free expression.”
John Kampfner, the CEO of Index on Censorship
English PEN and Index on Censorship will be publishing their report on English libel law reform, and launching the Libel Reform campaign, at the Free Word Centre on 10 November.
English PEN and Index on Censorship have been looking into these issues in detail for over a year now and it has become increasingly clear that English libel law and the use of ‘super-injunctions’ are having a profoundly negative impact on freedom of expression, both in the UK and abroad. Writers such as Simon Singh, and respected current affairs programme Newsnight, have found themselves facing defamation suits, whilst human rights campaigners are often forced to edit and retract articles in the face of potential libel action.
The Libel Reform campaign will bring together Index on Censorship and English PEN to mount a national campaign with a website launched on 10 November to persuade politicians from all parties of the importance of reforming these unjust laws.
Update: Read the Independent’s interview with Index on Censorship’s John Kampfner here
October 23rd, 2009
John Kampfner
British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin received the oxygen of publicity he craved by winning his spot on Question Time, Britain’s premier TV debate show, but at the end of a nation’s ordeal, democracy emerged intact, says John Kampfner.
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October 20th, 2009
The British National Party leader’s appearance on Question Time is not a “no platform” issue, says the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary. It is time to confront the BNP by championing moderation and tolerance
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