Focus, partnership and joined-up advocacy in defence of human rights – the UK Foreign Office’s lost vocation, as revealed by the diplomats’ own annual report. Rohan Jayasekera comments
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The Little Atoms Radio show, hosted by Neil Denny and Rebecca Watson was backstage at the Big Libel gig interviewing acts and campaigners including Simon Singh, Tim Minchin, Marcus Brigstocke, Tracey Brown, Richard Wiseman, Brian Cox, Ben Goldacre, Dara O’Briain, Ariane Sherine, Ed Byrne, Shappi Khorsandi and Robin Ince. The show contains some bad language and a whole load of libel. The song at the end of the show is Change the Libel Laws by Sly and Reggie, The Suburban Pirates.
You can listen here.
and watch Rebecca’s videos here.
Lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been charged with subverting state power, Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi made the annoucement during a news conference with David Miliband on Tuesday. Gao, noted for taking on high-profile cases against the Chinese government, has been missing for over a year.
On 13 March, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez called for new internet regulations and demanded that authorities crack down on a news website he accused of spreading false information. Chávez claimed the Noticiero Digital website had falsely reporting that two of his political allies had been assassinated. Noticiero Digital acknowledged that the forum posts Chávez singled out contained rumors posted by site users but said it had removed them within hours. “The internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. No, every country has to apply its own rules and norms,” Chavez said during his televised speech. He also cited German Chancellor Angela Merkel as having voiced similar sentiments recently.