A panel discussion with John Kampfner, Helena Kennedy, Philippe Sands, Ann Clwyd MP and David House (one of Bradley Manning’s only visitors in jail) on the legality of Manning’s detention, the US government’s reaction to the WikiLeaks scandal and the law surrounding whistleblowers.
Sunday 29 May, 4pm
Venue: Oxfam Stage
Buy tickets here
Hero, enemy of the state, information champion, victim?
Ann Clwyd MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights
David Leigh, The Guardian
Emily Butselaar, Index on Censorship
Tuesday 24th May 2011, 6pm – 7.30pm
Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons
On the week that President Obama visits the UK and on the one year anniversary of Bradley Manning’s arrest and detention, a panel discusses the issues raised by the case of Bradley Manning and what happens now.
Bradley Manning is the US soldier accused of leaking information to the WikiLeaks website. Until 20 April, he was held in prison conditions which attracted the condemnation of human rights organisations around the world and which promoted an investigation by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
Manning has yet to face trial, but when he does it will be in a US Court Martial. Can Manning receive a fair trial in the military courts system? What should our attitude be towards the charges levelled against Manning? What has been the effect of the WikiLeaks disclosures and what role did they play in the Arab Spring revolutions? What does the treatment of Manning say about the United States’ attitude to whistle-blowers?
This meeting is open to the public to attend; entry is via Portcullis House.
With the news that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to make a second visit to China this year, speculation that Facebook is set to grovel its way back into China, speculation that has been doing the rounds for months, has picked up again.
Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009.
“We want to connect the whole world,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told reporters Thursday at a Reuters business summit. “And it’s impossible to think about connecting the whole world right now without also connecting China.”
But that may be just its undoing for success in China.
“Facebook’s key advantage is in connecting the world, and in China that becomes its biggest disadvantage because the Chinese government doesn’t want the Chinese people to be connected freely to the rest of the world,” said one web user who wished to remain anonymous.
No date was given for Zuckerberg’s second trip to the mainland — just sometime this year — but a market of hundreds of millions of internet users appears to be just too enticing for him to give up in the name of free speech.
It is not simply a case of Facebook making sure it blocks sensitive key words and abiding by other restrictions in China, as corporate strategic communications advisor David Wolf writes on his blog, Silicon Hutong. On his latest posting he lists nine things Facebook must do to succeed in China. Of these the most interesting are:
The weekend brought a whole new level of absurdity to the current controversy over injunctions. Scotland’s Sunday Herald published the identity of the anonymous footballer (I won’t name him, but we all know who I’m talking about) alleged to have had an affair with former Miss Wales Imogen Thomas (I can name her, though many claim not to have heard of her before she was injuncted by the footballer everyone has heard of but cannot name). (more…)