China: Three Tibetan nuns jailed

July 18th, 2011

Three nuns have each been jailed for three year after they staged a peaceful street protest, chanting “Free Tibet” and “long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama”, on 15 June. The women, aged between 21 and 31, are part of the Gyemadrak Nunnery in Tibet and were arrested by Chinese authorites hours after the protest began. The nuns have been named as Jampa Choedon, Sheh Lhamo and Tashi Choetso.

Honduras: Radio station director killed

July 15th, 2011

A 26-year-old radio station director was killed yesterday in Honduras. Nery Jeremias Orellana was stopped and shot in the head by masked gunmen as he rode home from work on a motorcycle.  He died soon after he was taken to a local hospital. A supporter of recently ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Orellana was head of Radio Joconguera de Candelaria and was a member of the National Resistance Front.  

Malayasia: 1600 arrested as campaign for electoral reform continues

July 11th, 2011

Police in Malaysia made 1600 arrests at the weekend, as protesters ignored government warnings to cancel anti-government action. Leaders of the opposition coalition, Bersih, who have led the campaign for a “free and fair” election system, were amongst the thousands detained. An estimated 10, 000 police officers used tear gas and batons against the 50, 000 people who took to the streets of Kuala Lumpar. Crowds chanting, “Reformasi!” (“Reforms”), ‘”God is great” and “Long Live the People” were successfully prevented from gaining access to the to the king’s palace to hand over a memorandum detailing their demands.

Turkey: Contributors to user-generated dictionary arrested

June 30th, 2011

Istanbul police have arrested 50 contributors to Turkey’s largest user-generated dictionary. The “Sour Dictionary” (Eksi Sozluk) site offers satirical definitions of a number of common words and has been running for around 12 years. The anonymous authors, who were identified through their IP addresses, have been charged with “insulting religion” following a complaint over a discussion about the prophet Muhammed. The site’s administrators have faced criticism for agreeing to hand over authors’ IP addresses to the police.

Russia: Oleg Kashin defeats libel claim

June 27th, 2011

Russian journalist, Oleg Kashin, has won the right to speculate about the identity of two men who beat him with iron rods. Kashin spent five days in a coma after he was attacked outside his apartmenton 6 November last year. The Kremlin’s youth policy chief, Vasily Yakemanko, filed a libel suit against Kashin, liberal newspaper Novye Izvestia and political analyst, Alexander Morozov, for reporting speculation that he might be behind the incident. A Moscow court ruled in favour of Kashin after it was found that Yakemenko had failed to prove that the accusations were factual statements.  

Belarus: Protesters use social media to organise co-ordinate efforts

June 24th, 2011

Activists used popular Russian social network, Vkontakte, and Twitter hashtag, #2206v1900, to organise protest action in towns all over Belarus on 22 June. Over 1, 000 people gathered for a rally in Minsk despite warnings to would-be protesters from local police about “possible administrative charges for participating in unsanctioned protests”. Throughout the day Vkontakte group, “Movement of the Future”, with over 200, 000 members, tweeted regularly. A total of 450 protesters were arrested during the “silent” anti-government demonstrations, many remain in detention.

Bahrain: Ayat al-Gormezi faces tribunal for poetry reading

June 3rd, 2011

Ayat al-Gormezi, the 20 year old woman arrested for reading a poem at a pro-democracy rally in Pearl Square, Bahrain, is due to face a military tribunal later today. Just days after she read the poem which ended “Down with Hamad”, police raided her family home. The poet and student has claimed that she was forced to hand herself in when police held her four brothers at gunpoint. Al-Gormezi has spent time in a military hospital since being taken into police custody where she has received treatment for torture wounds. This is the latest in a growing number of violent acts towards female protesters in Bahrain.

PAST EVENT: Freedom of speech and investigative journalism

October 26th, 2010

Thursday 18 November 2010, 6.15pm

Hosted by the Department of Theatre, Film and Television on the Heslington East campus

Greg Dyke now chancellor of the University of York will chair a panel of leading industry experts, including:

• Ian Bloom (Partner, Head of Corporate and Media at Ross & Craig)
• Helen Boaden (Director of News, BBC)
• Dr David Levy (Director of the Reuters Institute for Journalism at the University of Oxford)
• Steve Richards (Chief Political Commentator at The Independent)
• Simon Singh (author, journalist, TV producer)

The debate will open to the audience, with opportunities for questions and input.

Reserve tickets by contacting Nik Miller on nm19@york.ac.uk

Location: Theatre Film and Television building, Heslington East

Telephone: 01904 432622