Posts Tagged ‘USA’
January 13th, 2012
Bradley Manning, the US solider accused of the largest intelligence breach in American history, is moving closer to the possibility of spending the rest of his life in
military confinement.The presiding officer over Manning’s
pre-trial hearing recommended he be sent to a full court martial, following his alleged involvement in the
WikiLeaks dump of state secrets. Colonel Paul Almanza, the investigating officer at last month’s hearing is believed to have written to his superiors recommending that all 22 charges against Manning be referred to a general court martial.
December 21st, 2011
The
US Government has asked two scientific journals
to censor data on bird flu. Nature and Science were asked by the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity to publish redacted versions of studies by two research groups that suggests the H5N1 avian flu could spread
quickly among humans. The laboratory-made version of bird flu covered in the data could easily jump between ferrets — a sign a mutated form of the virus could spread among humans. The journals are objecting to the request, saying it would restrict access to information that might advance the cause of public health.
Read more about censorship and science in “Dark Matter,” the latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine. You can also read the entire issue for free (until 22 December) on our Facebook page
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
(more…)
December 12th, 2011
The
death penalty has been dropped against a
USA journalist in Philadelphia who has spent thirty years on death row.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing white police officer
Daniel Faulknerin 1981, will have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, after Faulkner’s widow reportedly persuaded prosecutors to stop pushing for the death penalty. The death sentence of Abu-Jamal, a former member of the African-American leftist group Black Panther, was
quashed in April, and the state of Pennsylvania was given six months to select a jury and hold a new sentencing hearing, or agree to a life sentence.
December 12th, 2011
Funding has
been pulled from a student newspaper in
New York, following the
publication of an article about pre-marital sex. The Student Council at Yeshiva University, the Orthodox Jewish college in Manhattan, opted to withdraw the $500 it takes to publish
The Beacon after the anonymous article received more than 41,000 hits and sparked an argument about “the soul of the university.”
The decision sparked a campus-wide debate on censorship at the university, where the principles are based on the philosophy of Torah U’madda – the relationship between the secular world and Judaism.
October 24th, 2011
A
New York Times reporter may be forced to
reveal his sources, despite a ruling which said his testimony was protected by reporters privilege. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice asked a federal appeals court to force James Risen to testify about his sources in the trial of a CIA officer who was accused of leaking top secret information. In the hearing, federal prosecutors appealed the ruling from a US District
court on 29 July that Risen did not have to reveal his sources in the trial of ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Stirling. Risen’s lawyer Joel Kurtzberg has said they will fight the appeal.
October 13th, 2011
A
long-awaited report on a
Texan estuary is being delayed, following accusations that important information in the original report has been omitted for political reasons. John Anderson, the professor of oceanography at
Rice University has accused the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (
TCEQ) of deleting references to climate change, human impact on the environment and sea-level rise. Anderson believes that the omissions have been made for partisan, rather than scientific, reasons. A spokesperson for the environmental agency said that the deletions had been made because the TCEQ did not agree with information in the article.
September 13th, 2011
Oregon’s Supreme Court has
rejected an appeal made by a convicted stalker. John Norman Ryan began stalking a woman in 2005, eventually she took out a stalking protective order which forbade Ryan from making any contact. Ryan breached the order and was convicted by the courts. He appealed on the grounds that as the communication was not violent, he was expressing his First Amendment right to free speech. The judges ruled against him.
