19 Apr 2010 | Uncategorized
Couple of articles still basking in the BCA’s climbdown in its defamation case against Simon Singh.
In the Guardian, Simon Singh stresses that though his case is over, the battle for reform continues:
…any reform needs to be radical, not merely tinkering. There are several issues that need to be addressed, such as the current lack of a public interest defence, the unfair burden of proof on defendants, libel tourism and so on. And each problem needs to be tackled properly.
Simon was also profiled in the Sunday Times.
Meanwhile Nick Cohen in the Observer celebrates the geeks who backed Simon’s campaign against the Chiropractics:
There is an overlap with the more assertive atheism which followed 9/11. Like atheists, skeptics treat as patronising and contemptible the cynical modern belief that you should not examine religion or alternative medicines because the simple-minded and uninformed find comfort in them. But you do not have to be an atheist to be a skeptic, merely commit to the free examination of evidence. This modest ambition is surprisingly potent.
Politicians who supported libel reform had a smart and committed network behind them. I suspect that politicians who still want to defend our irrational drugs laws or alternative treatments on the NHS will find that they will face unrelenting scrutiny from equally smart and committed opponents. My hope after Singh’s victory is that none but the foolhardy will want a repeat of the drubbing the chiropractors received.
19 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Geovanni Acate, director of Radio Televisión Oriente, is facing a 10-year prison sentence after being charged with disrupting public tranquility and instigating the public to commit the crime of rebellion. Geovanni Acate, as Radio La Voz and other radio stations in the region, has been persecuted after reporting on the protests that took place in Bagua Grande in 2009.
19 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Belarus: The Ministry of Information has refused to register the newspaper Silnye Novosti Gomelya, run by the Pechatnoe Slovo company, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists. The refusal was justified on the basis that the editor’s qualifications did not meet the Ministry’s requirements. According to the BAJ, at least eight newspapers have been denied registration by the government since the autumn of 2009. The news coincides with reports that a journalist and candidate for the city council in the town of Babruisk was beaten by police for raising the white-red flag of the Belarusian People’s Republic, a symbol of protest against the government of President Alexander Lukashenko. His trial continues.
Last week, pro-government activists held a picket in front of the offices of the opposition “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper over an extract they published from Illya Kopyl’s book Nyabyshyna, which documents activity of Soviet guerillas in the period of Nazi occupation. In other news, Maxim Vunyarski, an activist for the European Belarus movement, is to face trial for participating in a rally for Solidarity Day on March 16.
19 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
France: A Paris court has fined the France 24 news channel for reporting press rumours that first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was having an affair with a French pop singer. Judges ordered the publicly-funded television channel to pay 3,000 euros to the singer in question, Benjamin Biolay, following a ruling that the coverage violated his privacy. On April 6, it was reported that President Sarkozy has ordered a “campaign of terror” to punish those responsible for rumours which circulated last month on supposed tit-for-tat, extra-marital affairs by the French first couple reported in Britain and Switzarland. Lawyers for France 24 argued that it that exceptional level of international coverage made it a legitimate story to include in their press review. The court rejected this defence.
