11 May 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Local officials summoned four journalists for questioning as part of their investigation into alleged slandering of a senior KGB officer. Police recently searched the homes of four journalists and seized their computers as part of the investigation into internet reports that claimed KGB officers had fabricated a case against a local police officer. Natalia Radzina of Index on Censorship award nominees charter97.org, Irina Khalip of Novaya Gazeta, and Svetlana Kalinkina and Marina Koktysh of Novaya Volya are awaiting the results of investigations into files stored on their computers, which have still not been returned to them. In a separate development, sources at charter97.org say that a second slander case has been brought against them involving comments posted by users on their website.
11 May 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized
Hundreds of university students assaulted a local parliament building in Erbil, the capital of Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdistan region on 10 May. The students were taking part in an angry protest against the abduction and killing of Kurdish student and journalist Zardasht Osman. Protesters, many of them dressed in black, marched from the spot where Osman was abducted to the parliament building. They accused security and intelligence forces of being behind the killing. A similar protest will be held on Wednesday in Sulaimaniya.
11 May 2010 | News and features, Uncategorized
Please join Index on Censorship, Google, Facebook and Privacy International for a debate on the internet and free speech at the Free Word Centre on 12 May at 6.30pm
with
Richard Allan, Director of Policy EU, Facebook
Anthony House, European Policy and Communications Manager,
Google Gus Hosein, Policy Director, Privacy International
Chaired by Jo Glanville, Editor, Index on Censorship
New technology has revolutionised freedom of expression, but it’s also transformed the business of censorship. Governments can monitor and control information as never before, while filtering and punitive action is becoming the norm — whether in the name of child protection or intellectual property. So what will it take to make the internet safe for free speech?
To reserve a place email bookings[at]freewordonline.com or call 020 7324 2570. Event details here
If you can’t attend leave your questions in the comments below and we will put the best questions to the panel tomorrow night
11 May 2010 | Uncategorized
With humour, context is all.
Things tend to be funny either because we entirely understand the context (as with the perrenial injokes of, say, Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue) or because things are utterly wrenched out of context (the bizarre ramblings of Ross Noble).
Paul Chambers, a trainee accountant, made a joke to his Twitter followers, saying he would blow up Robin Hood airport if closures meant he missed a meet-up with an Irish friend.
Specifically, he wrote:
“Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week… otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”
Not especially funny, but hardly that offensive either. And not genuinely threatening, is it?
Incredibly, someone reported Chambers’s tweet to the airport.
And then the airport passed it onto the police.
So at what stage does someone think “this was obviously a joke; we should drop this”?
They don’t. The Crown Prosecution Service first attempted to see if it could prosecute under the Criminal Law Act 1977. Having found the case insufficient, it then switched the charge to one under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 — a piece of legislation designed to punish harassment by text message.
Unbelievably, on 10 May, Chambers was yesterday found guilty as charged, and ordered to pay a fine and costs totalling almost £1,000.
The judgment makes unsettling reading for anyone who’s ever made a joke on their Facebook page or Twitter feed: Essentially it implies that since Chambers “published” the joke, he both must have known it to be menacing and meant it to be menacing.
The judgment bases this conclusion on the fact of the “current climate” of Islamist terror attacks on aviation. So once again, fear of a dour, punitive, vindictive, literalist movement has led the powers that be to act in a dour, punitive, vindictive manner.
Jack of Kent has lots more on this
Update: Paul Chambers has blogged about his experience on Liberty Central
