Posts Tagged ‘social media’
October 18th, 2012
Fazil Say, a Turkish pianist and composer, was put on trial in Istanbul today (18 October) for insulting Islam in Twitter posts.
The musician is charged with inciting hatred and public enmity, and with insulting “religious values”. He could face 18 months in prison if found guilty.
Say, who has performed with the New York Philharmonic and served as a cultural ambassador for the European Union, has since received death threats, according to his lawyer. The trial has been adjourned until 18 February.
October 17th, 2012
The Bahrain Interior Ministry announced the
arrest of four people for defaming public figures on social media today (17 October), with authorities still searching for a fifth.
The Acting General Director of Anti-Corruption, Electronic and Economic Security said that the suspects confessed to their crime, which could result in a jail sentence of up to five years. Bahrain’s cyber defamation laws — which include the publication of “fake news” — were
revised in September, resulting in heavier monitoring of social media networks to tackle the “misuse” of such platforms.
Index award winner
Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Human Rights Center is
currently appealing a three year sentence for organising pro-democracy rallies via social networks.
October 14th, 2012
In the age of social media, the European Union needs to defend free expression. But it often falls far short, says Padraig Reidy
(more…)
October 11th, 2012
A man has been sentenced to a total of eight months in prison by a Manchester court for wearing a T-shirt daubed with offensive comments referring the murders of PC Fiona Bone and PC Nicola Hughes.
Barry Thew, of Radcliffe, Greater Manchester admitted to a Section 4A Public Order Offence today (11 October) for wearing the T-shirt, on which he had written the messages ”One less pig; perfect justice” and “killacopforfun.com haha”.
Inspector Bryn Williams, of the Radcliffe Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “To mock or joke about the tragic events of that morning is morally reprehensible and Thew has rightly been convicted and sentenced for his actions.”
Thew had been reported to police after wearing the article around three-and-a-half hours after the officers were
shot dead in Greater Manchester on 2 October.
UPDATE: According to the Manchester Evening News, four months of Thew’s sentence was handed down for breach of a previous suspended sentence
Also this week
08 October 2012 | Man jailed for offensive Facebook comments about missing schoolgirl
09 October 2012 | Yorkshire man sentenced over offensive Twitter comments directed at soldiers
11 Comments
Tags: Tags: Azhar Ahmed offence, Barry Thew, Fiona Bone, freedom of speech, law, Nicola Hughes, offence, police, Public Order Act, social media, UK,
October 9th, 2012
Yorkshire man Azhar Ahmed has been given a community order after being found guilty of “sending a grossly offensive communication”. Ahmed, 19, from West Yorkshire wrote on Facebook that “All soldiers should DIE & go to HELL!” This morning at Huddersfield Magistrates’ Court he was
fined £300 and ordered to complete 240 hours of community service over a two-year period.
October 8th, 2012
A man who admitted to posting “despicable” comments about missing five-year-old
April Jones on his Facebook page has been
jailed for 12 weeks. Matthew Woods appeared at Chorley Magistrates’ Court today, where he pleaded guilty to “sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive” (
section 127 (1) a of the Communications Act 2003). Woods’ comments, which included some of a sexually explicit nature about the youngster who went missing last week, were deemed so “abhorrent” that they deserved the longest sentence that could be passed, less a third to account for Woods’ early guilty plea.
September 20th, 2012
The Director of Public Prosecutions has
announced a consultation to establish clear guidelines on prosecutions involving social media . In a statement on The Crown Prosecution Service website announcing that footballer Daniel Thomas — investigated for allegedly homophobic tweets about Olympic divers Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield — will not be prosecuted, Keir Starmer QC said:
“To ensure that CPS decision-making in these difficult cases is clear and consistent, I intend to issue guidelines on social media cases for prosecutors. These will assist them in deciding whether criminal charges should be brought in the cases that arise for their consideration. In the first instance, the CPS will draft interim guidelines. There will then be a wide public consultation before final guidelines are published. As part of that process, I intend to hold a series of roundtable meetings with campaigners, media lawyers, academics, social media experts and law enforcement bodies to ensure that the guidelines are as fully informed as possible.”
Starmer and the CPS faced severe criticism for the handling of Paul Chambers’s “
Twitter joke trial“. Chambers, who was found guilty of sending a “menacing communication” after he joked about blowing up Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster, had his conviction overturned in July of this year.
It
emerged today that a man has been arrested under the Communications Act 2003 for allegedly setting up a Facebook page praising Dale Cregan, the Manchester man accused of killing two police officers.
August 1st, 2012
Dorset police
announced yesterday that a 17-year-old who was arrested in the Weymouth area on suspicion of malicious communication has been issued with a harassment warning in connection to
tweets sent to Olympic diver Tom Daley. The teenager has been bailed to return to the police station at a later date while the force investigates other communications on his Twitter account.
