The Australian government has announced that it is to go ahead with controversial internet censorship plans after trials of the new filtering system were found to be accurate. The filter laws will be introduced in parliament in August 2010 and will take a year to implement. Critics said the trial results were not surprising and the policy was still fundamentally flawed. Read more here
Blogger and pro-democracy activist Nguyen Tien Trung is facing the death penalty after being charged with “trying to overthrow the government” and is due to be tried at the end of the month. Trung was arrested in July on a charge of propaganda against the state which related to blogs he had posted including an open letter to the government on education policy. According to his father he is now facing the more serious charge of “subverting the people’s administration”. His supporters believe the charges are intended to intimidate students who are calling for more press freedom. Read more here
Comedian Robin Ince appeared on the Daily Politics on BBC2 at 12pm today condeming libel law in the UK and backing Index on Censorship and English Pen’s campaign on libel reform.
To watch the video click here.
To sign the petition on libel reform and for more information on the campaign click here.
Lawyers for the foreign secretary, David Miliband have branded two senior judges “irresponsible” for wanting to disclose intelligence material related to allegations of torture involving the CIA and the UK’s alleged collusion. Jonathan Sumption QC, appearing for the foreign secretary, told the Court of Appeal the stance taken by High Court judges Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones could “seriously damage national security”. The foreign secretary is appealing against six high court judgments ruling that CIA information on Mohamed’s treatment, and what MI5 and MI6 knew about it, must be disclosed. The appeal is being opposed by both Mr Mohamed and media organisations. The case resumes tomorrow and is due to last three days. Read more here