29 Sep 2009 | Uncategorized
The past few days has seen a hell of a lot of righteous indignation over the BBC’s Andrew Marr’s questioning of Gordon Brown’s medical routine (“A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through; are you one of those people?”).
I should say I found the question pretty distasteful myself. Though many of us do rely on pills to help with physical or psychological ailments, it’s just not something we talk about. Interrogating someone on health, which in Britain is seen very much as a private matter, is just not done.
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29 Sep 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Dozens of protesters were shot dead in a crowded football stadium by Guinean security forces at a demonstration against the country’s military leader Captain Moussa “Dadis” Camara on 28 September. As many as 58 people had been brought in to the Conakry morgue on Monday, according to a doctor who wished to remain anonymous.
Read more here
29 Sep 2009 | News and features
Newspapers linked to Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi have launched an attack on state broadcaster RAI, telling readers not to pay their television licence fee. The call is part of a long-running assault on media critical of the governing party and Berlusconi’s business empire.
Download Index on Censorship’s report on political interference in Italian media here
28 Sep 2009 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Interim leaders in Honduras suspended civil liberties on 27 September. Measures can now be taken to break up “unauthorised” public meetings, arrest people without warrants and restrict the news media. Media outlets which “attack peace and public order or which offend the human dignity of public officials, or attack the law” will be closed. Pro-Zelaya radio and television stations which have continued to broadcast Zelaya’s statements and criticise the government are primarily subject to these restrictions.
Read more here
