Posts Tagged ‘Guardian’
September 21st, 2011
The Metropolitan police has
backed down from its threat to use the Official Secrets Act to force Guardian journalists to reveal sources in the phone-hacking scandal investigation. The Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Mark Simmons,
admitted that the attempt was “not appropriate.” Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian welcomed the withdrawal of the “ill-judged order”, and said that “threatening reporters with the Official Secrets Act was a sinister new device to get round the protection of journalists’ confidential sources.” Index
condemned the efforts on Friday, and Chief Executive John Kampfner said that the move was “shocking” and “a direct attack on a free press.”
June 21st, 2011
Guardian journalist Waqar Kiani
has claimed that he was abducted and tortured by
Pakistani intelligence agents on Saturday night. The alleged attack followed a television appearance where he discussed a previous assault which took place in 2008,
the details of which had only just been released. Kiani has been working on a story about the illegal detention and torture of Islamist militants by Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence . The 32-year-old claims that he was stopped, dragged from his car and attacked with wooden batons and a rubber whip. He is currently being treated in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.
March 17th, 2011
Gaith Abdul Ahad, a Guardian reporter, has been
released after being detained for a fortnight by Libyan authorities. Ahad, along with Andrei Netto, a Brazilian journalist, were
held after entering Libya from Tunisia. Netto was
freed a few days ago. The New York Times
reports that four of its journalists have been missing in Libya since 15 March.
March 14th, 2011
Ali Hassan Al Jaber, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was
killed in Libya on 12 March after being shot by unknown attackers, in an
ambush by forces loyal to Gaddafi.
After covering an anti-government protest, the Al Jazeera team was on its way to the city of Benghazi, when the car they were travelling in came under fire. Another journalist in the car received minor gun shot wounds. Al Jaber is the first journalist to have been killed while covering the recent unrest in Libya.
Wadah Khanfar, the director-general of Al Jazeera, condemned the attack on its journalists: “Al Jazeera reiterates the assault cannot dent its resolve to continue its mission, professionally enlightening the public of the unfolding events in Libya and elsewhere.”
It is also
reported that Brazilian journalist, Andrei Netto, who was being held by Libyan authorities has now been released. However, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, a Guardian journalist who was
detained at the same time as Netto, is still in custody.
February 9th, 2011
Russia’s expulsion of the Guardian’s Luke Harding is part of a policy of attempting to control reportage, say Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan
(more…)
February 8th, 2011
The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent has been expelled from Russia.
Luke Harding attempted to re-enter Russia on the weekend, instead his visa was annulled and he was detained in an airport cell for 45 minutes before being returned to the UK on the next available flight. He was told: “
For you Russia is closed“. This is thought to be the first incident of this kind
since the cold war ended, the Russians are yet to provide an official explanation. Harding’s removal came after he reported on claims made in leaked US diplomatic cables that Russia had become a “
virtual Mafia state” under Vladimir Putin, he also also co-authored
Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy.
October 26th, 2009
Junior Justice Minister Bridget Prentice revealed on 21 October that Justice Secretary Jack Straw has called on senior judges and lawyers representing major newspapers to discuss the fit and proper use of super injunctions. It follows the issuing of a super injunction by the courts that inadvertently prevented the Guardian newspaper from reporting parliamentary proceedings. Although the Lord Chief Justice, Judge Judge, pointed out that some super injunctions were justified, Prentice nonetheless admitted to being “very concerned that super injunctions are being used more commonly”. Having appeased MPs by assurring them that their absolute right to address parliament was protected by law, Prentice said that further guidelines on the issuing of super injunctions might be useful to the judiciary.
