Reports are emerging that an injunction on the reporting of the case of Anat Kamm, an Israeli activist accused of leaking confidential military documents to the media, has been lifted by a Tel Aviv court.
More to follow
In a self-preserving news blackout, the mainstream media proved the central point of the Starsuckers documentary: their “behaviour is monstrously hypocritical”. Judith Townend reports
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Large-scale riots have broken out in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, over what human rights groups claim are increasingly repressive policies of the president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. One government minister has been killed, and the deputy prime minister has been taken hostage in a series of protests which started when a group of protestors stormed government offices in the town of of Talas on Tuesday. Since he took office in 2005, Bakiyev has cracked down on opposition parties and the independent media. Last Wednesday, a court suspended the newspaper Forum, on the basis that an article contained “appeals to forcibly overthrow the constitutional order”. On Thursday, financial police raided the Bishkek headquarters of the independent Web-based television outlet Stan TV, confiscating all computer equipment. The clampdown follows suspensions of two other newspapers Achyk Sayasat and Nazar on 18 March. All thee had reported on a March opposition convention, at which representatives demanded President Bakiyev dismiss his relatives from government positions, and that the government lower electricity and heating costs.
Jack Straw’s measure to reduce success payments to lawyers in ‘no win no fee’ libel cases sunk by a misinformed backbench rebellion, says Bob Satchwell
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