Index on Censorship Chief Executive John Kampfner discusses his book Freedom for Sale at the UK’s biggest literary festival
30 May
2.30PM OXFAM STUDIO, £5
John Kampfner
Freedom for Sale: How We Made Money and Lost Our Liberty
Why is it that so many people around the world appear willing to give up freedoms in return for either security or prosperity?
More details at www.hayfestival.com
I’ve just got back from the courts, where Mr Justice Eady has put a permenant stay on the case of Sant Baba Jeet Singh Ji Maharaj v Hardeep Singh.
British Sikh journalist Hardeep Singh had written an article for the UK-based Sikh Times in August 2007, in which he was highly critical of India-based Jeet Singh, who he described as – among other things –being “one of several high-profile accused Cultists who are causing difficulties for the [Sikh] community worldwide.”
Now, I can entirely understand someone taking offence to being called a cultist. But Mr Justice Eady in blocking the case made the entirely right decision, pointing out that whether Jeet Singh was or was not within the mainstream of Sikhism was a matter that should not, and could not, be decided by the courts. Had the case continued, we would have found ourselves in the bizarre position of a secular court making a judgment on a religious dispute. Religions are ideologies that evolve through debate. They will split, schism and reform as members argue about meanings. The state and the judiciary have no part in any of this. To paraphrase the First Amendment, the judiciary should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
President Obama is to sign the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act today. The bill is designed to identify countries where press freedom is being violated, as well as promoting, protecting and “strengthening the independence of journalists and media organizations”. It is also committing $2m into publishing an “Annual Report on the Status of Freedom of the Press Worldwide”.
The Kuwaiti media have been banned from reporting on the dismantling of an Iranian spy network by prosecutor-general Hamed Saleh Al-Othman. The spy ring— which was publicly revealed on 1 May— was gathering information about Kuwaiti and US military bases on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Al-Othman told Al-Aan newspaper that he blocked further reporting of the case in order to allow the police and judicial authorities to investigate it without additional pressure. Reporters without Borders called the ban “a serious obstruction of investigative reporting.”