Human rights in changing times
In a speech to Amnesty International’s national conference John Kampfner talks self-censorship, Nick Griffin and why free speech means fighting for the rights of people whose views you find obnoxious
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Chinese activist denied medical parole
Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia, has been denied medical parole by Chinese officials. His wife, Zeng Jinyan appealed for his release to Beijing authorities last week citing concerns for his husband’s health, he may have liver cancer. According to Zeng’s blog, the authorities telephoned Hu’s mother this morning rejecting the plea. The caller claimed Hu, who was believed to be in hospital, has since been moved back to prison, and that his liver problem was the result of a “blood tumour”—not meeting the conditions of medical parole. Despite authorities have also refused Zeng’s request for a written report of Hu’s health. Hu Jia, winner of the Sakharov Prize, has been imprisoned since 2008 for testifying via video link to the European Parliament about China’s human rights record, and his sentence is due to end June 2011.
Mexico: Journalist found dead, another goes missing
Enrique Villicana Palomares, a teacher and a columnist for the daily newspaper “La Voz de Michoacán“, was found dead on 10 April in Morelia, in the southern state of Michoacán, five days after he was kidnapped. The Michoacán state justice department was being notified two weeks ago that threats had been made against him. His death came in the same week that another Michoacán journalist, Ramón Ángeles Zalpa of the newspaper “Cambio” was reported missing.
Labour lines up on libel
The Labour party launched its election manifesto this morning (12 April).
Among the 33,000 words (longer even than 1983’s “longest suicide note in history”, trivia fans) was this little sentence:
“To encourage freedom of speech and access to information,we will bring forward new legislation on libel to protect the right of defendants to speak freely”
This, undoubtedly, is A Good Thing. Moreover, it now means that all three mainstream parties have committed to reforming our libel laws in the next parliament.
The Lib Dems were first there, adopting the principle at their conference last year. And on Friday, Conservative shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve told the Libel Reform Campaign:
“the Conservative party is committed, if elected, to undertaking a fundamental review of the libel laws with a view to enacting legislation to reform them. This reform could best be done by means of a separate Libel Bill and this is the preferred approach for us.”
While we’re at it, we should mention that Amnesty has also lent its support to the campaign.
Sile Lane of Sense About Science and I will be representing the Libel Reform Coalition tonight at Westminster Skeptics in London, along with Simon Singh, Dave Gorman, Nick Cohen, Evan Harris, Joanne Cash and Jack of Kent.