8 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
The prominent Chinese human rights lawyer and activist Gao Zhisheng, who had been missing for over a year, gave his first interview to the Associated Press yesterday.
During the interview, Gao refused to discuss the suspicious circumstances surrounding his disappearance and reappearance, or comment on his treatment by Chinese authorities. Gao has previously written an open letter detailing graphic accounts of torture whilst under arrest in China, as well the treatment of his wife and children whom he claims had been starved whilst under captivity. The abandoning of his political activism now, says Gao, is due to concern for his family, currently residing in the US, whom he hopes to be reunited with one day.
8 Apr 2010 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, Uncategorized
Security forces assaulted and obstructed the journalist covering protests on the streets of Cairo on April 6. In response to an appeal made by the 6th April Movement, dozens of civilians gathered on Midan Al-Tharir, in central Cairo, to call for constitutional change and more democratic elections. As the protesters marched through the capital, the Egyptian police intervened. Journalists reported being prevented from covering the incident, they were surrounded, insulted and violently attacked by police officers, many also had their cameras seized. Al Jazeera TV’s Cairo bureau chief, Hussein Abdel Ghani, told Agence France Press (AFP) his cameramen were searched and their video footage confiscated. Many demonstrators reported their mobile phones, with which they took pictures and videos of the assault, were seized.
8 Apr 2010 | Events
Friday 16 April 2010, 6.30pm at the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA.
David Bond lives in the UK, one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world. He decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by attempting to disappear – a decision that changes his life forever. Leaving his pregnant wife and young child behind he tries to vanish and finds himself tracked across the database state by two ruthless private investigators. This is a chilling journey that forces him to contemplate the meaning of privacy – and its loss.
This is one of a few exclusive preview screenings before a nationwide cinema release on the 29th April. Jo Glanville, the editor of Index on Censorship, will introduce the film and will lead a Q&A afterwards with the Director and the private investigators who hunted him.
“Delivered with one hand on your pulse and the other hand smacking you in the face, Erasing David is a timely clarion call to those of us interested in guarding our civil liberties in an increasingly invasive digital age. An intelligent and subtle reminder that YOU are in charge.” – Sheffield Doc/Fest UK “A brilliant new documentary.” – Henry Porter, The Guardian
“A rousing and fascinating call to arms to protect our privacy.”- The Independent, UK
Please email: [email protected] or call 020 7324 2570 to book your FREE place.
The latest Index on Censorship magazine, “Brave New Words”, opens the debate over whether technology is the saviour of free speech. With Rebecca MacKinnon interviewing Google, Wen Yunchao on how China wields control online and Gus Hosein on why governments should respect privacy.
For more information about the nationwide cinema release, please visit: http://erasingdavid.com/
8 Apr 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
British filmmaker Asad Qureshi has been confirmed to be one of the group of men currently missing in Northern Waziristan, a mountainous tribal region on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. On 26 March, two former ISI agents set off with Qureshi and another British filmmaker to the area in order to conduct some interviews with Taliban leaders. No other reports have surfaced regarding their whereabouts.
