4 May 2011 | News and features
After an inquest finding that Ian Tomlinson was unlawfully killed, solicitors Sarah McSherry and Louise Christian examine the barriers to justice in cases involving the police
In circumstances where a man’s assault and death were played out on our television sets, the obstacles faced by the Tomlinson family in their battle for justice undermine public confidence in the system intended to hold police officers to account. Had Tomlinson’s assault been carried out by an ordinary member of the public, there is no doubt that the police would have acted within the six-month statutory time limit for common assault and pursued a manslaughter charge in the knowledge that any conflict in the expert evidence obtained by the investigation would be tested in court. A verdict would then have been reached by a jury, which would have considered the credibility of the experts’ explanations, bearing in mind the professional reputations of the experts. This is exactly what happened at the inquest, where the standard of proof for an unlawful killing verdict was the same as in the criminal court.
This case highlights a number of the failures that are unfortunately so common in the context of our work. These include: failures to adequately supervise and manage officers and to conduct adequate, effective and independent complaint investigations that give rise to disciplinary proceedings, as well as failures to bring about prosecutions and/or appropriate penalties and/or to change police policy or practice to prevent a recurrence of the conduct investigated. These failures foster a culture of impunity amongst officers and allow culpable officers to remain in a position to inflict further harm on unsuspecting members of the public. The Crown Prosecution Service will now review its decision with regard to a potential prosecution of the officer involved, PC Harwood; MPs are considering disciplinary proceedings. But what of those who, in breach of their code of professional standards, witnessed but failed to report Harwood’s conduct? Disciplinary action should be instigated against those officers too, given that had the video footage of his last moments not been released, the cause of Tomlinson’s death may have never come to light.
Finally, this case gives rise to serious questions about the use of kettling as a “containment” tactic. Indeed, last month the High Court ruled that the Metropolitan Police broke the law when they kettled protesters at the G20 demonstrations in 2009, during which Ian Tomlinson died. It is clear that the use of kettles enforced by aggressive policing places members of the public at risk of significant harm. We represent Alfie Meadows, who suffered brain injury as the result of a baton strike to the head by a police officer during the 9 December 2010 protest about tuition fees. Luckily for Alfie, he is able to pursue his own quest for justice. Tomlinson was not so fortunate and his family have been forced to take up that struggle on his behalf. Let’s hope their campaign is nearing its rightful conclusion.
Sarah McSherry is equity partner, head of actions against the police, Christian Khan Solicitors and Louise Christian is head of public law, Christian Khan Solicitors
4 May 2011 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa
At last night’s UNESCO’s 2011 World Press Freedom Day event, a distinguished panel examined the freedom to report in light of the Arab Spring.
One of the panelists was Shahira Amin, the brave Egyptian news anchor who quit in protest at Mubarak spin. She made it clear that the Arab Spring won’t change the situation on the ground for many local journalists. “The media in the Arab world has pretty much always been controlled by the state,” she said. “Autocratic regimes use state media to tighten their grip on power and this of course has been particularly true in the case of Egypt and Mubarak; even before Mubarak, Egypt has lived for 60 years under military rule.”
Amin had a stockpile of horrifying stories about the propaganda run by the Egyptian media. One tale in particular stood out. During the protests, one of the “independent” channels hosted a young girl, whose face was covered, who claimed she’d received training outside the country before joining the protests in Tahrir Square. It was later discovered that she was a producer working for that same channel. The level of control exercised over the country’s media was absolute, so how to transform the Egyptian media into a credible source of information?
Amin said: “[At] the start of the uprising the media in Egypt was in denial and ignored the protest. You would switch on the telly and find a programme on tourism to Sinai. Then the media attacked the protesters. In the final week of the protests there was outside pressure on the new government that Mubarak had put in place to free up the media and do away with censorship. Google executive Wael Ghonim, a founder of one of the Facebook groups who had summoned the protesters to Tahrir, was hosted on one of the independent channels and he told the story of how he had been blindfolded and locked up behind bars for 12 days for starting the uprising. That was a turning point in the revolution. The next day, the number of protesters more than doubled and this says a lot about the power of a free media.
But Egypt is a country where 40 per cent of the population live below the poverty line of two dollars a day. These people have no access to the internet, nor satellite channels. The state media is their main source of information. The day Mubarak fell, the media shifted 180 degrees — they backpedalled furiously, falling over themselves to be on the side of the revolution, but their credibility had already been lost. It will take a long time for them to regain public trust. And yes, they are now hosting opposition figures who weren’t allowed to appear before, but these are the same employees with the same mindset. There needs to be a complete change in recruitment policies and a restructure of editorial practices and training for journalists.”
“Flashback” Shahira Amin, the number two at Nile television, explains why she resigned from Egyptian state television. “I am on the people’s side, not the regime’s”
3 May 2011 | Uncategorized
The rise of the internet is frequently accompanied by fears of the decline in quality journalism, as organisations like WikiLeaks have blurred old rules around the standards of a responsible fourth estate and as cell phone-wielding citizens have collapsed old distinctions about exactly who counts as a journalist. (more…)
3 May 2011 | Iran, Middle East and North Africa
Iranian workers are denied the basic right of assembly but each year they valiantly mark May Day. Iran’s labour movement has a long and courageous history: despite the fact that workers have no right to form unions or express their grievances, many bravely do, facing imprisonment for claiming unpaid wages.
This year, worker groups in Iran joined together to issue a statement highlighting their circumstances on International Workers’ Day. The following is an extract:
“The so-called ‘rationalization of subsidies’ [elimination of all subsidies for basic goods being carried out by Ahmadinejad’s government] is ever more destroying the lives and livelihoods of millions of workers’ families, yet we do not have the right to freely protest against this situation. With the dizzying increase in the prices of energy [gas and electricity] and the ever-increasing shutdown of factories, hundreds and thousands of workers are forced to join the millions of unemployed. Meanwhile, they [the rulers] change the terms and conditions for unemployment benefits to the detriment of workers; they obtain franchises in hospitals and clinics that attend to workers, and set different criteria for retirement benefits; they tie up construction workers’ insurances with labyrinthian bureaucratic rules; and at the same time that raise the prices of basic goods by astronomical amounts [by 5 to 8 times] , while raising the minimum wage for workers by an insulting 9.0%.
In our view, for millions of desperate and destitute workers’ families trying to scrape a living in these conditions, all the mentioned factors have no meaning other than increased pressure in trying to make ends meet. However, we the workers will not be observers of the slow death of our families and will not accept the daily assault on our lives and livelihoods, but stand unified against poverty, misery and the total lack of social rights. In this context, we the Iranian workers announce our utter abhorrence for the current conditions, and call on all the people in the country to collectively raise their general demands.
Signed:
Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company
Free Union of Iranian Workers
Committee for reopening Painters and Interior Design Workers’ Syndicate
Committee for reopening Mechanical Metals Workers Syndicate
Society in Defense of Workers’ Rights
Committee for Pursuit of Forming Workers’ Organizations
Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations”
Full statement and demands can be read here
Jailed activist Mansour Osanlou who has been a key figure in Iran’s worker movement has taken this further.
I wish 1 May to become a day of anger for my fellow countrymen and fellow workers – a day of anger of all the wage-earners of Iran.” In a note from prison he continued, “We welcome 1 May in such circumstances that the ruling dictatorship and despots in their fascist approach bar every protest, in effect leaving us to die of hunger and poverty while telling us not to make a sound.
24 scholars worldwide have signed a statement by The International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI) recognising jailed workers in Iran.
