Belarussian presidential elections: Thousands protest


– Two opposition leaders beaten

– Tens of thousands gather in Minsk’s Independence Square

– Lukashenko claims 79 per cent of poll

– Index on Censorship told of 31 detentions prior to demonstrations

Belarus Free Theatre founders arrested

Up to 600 protestors detained

As the world’s attention turns to Europe’s last dictatorship, Index’s Mike Harris explains the bakground to today’s demonstrations
(more…)

Polish star Doda faces prosecution for insulting religion

Doda (or Dorota Rabczewska, as it says on her birth certificate), is, according to CNN, one of the top 10 famous poles ever!

The “Polish Britney Spears” has found herself in trouble, however, after saying she believed more in dinosaurs rather than the Bible because “it is hard to believe in something written by people who drank too much wine and smoked herbal cigarettes.”

Following complaints from conservative Catholic groups, Doda now faces prosecution for “insulting religious feelings”, a crime that can carry a prison sentence of up to two years under Polish law.

This, surely, illustrates a problem with legislating for feelings. How does one prove whether a person, never mind a religious group, gets hurt feelings? And how hurtful does something have to be before it’s illegal?

Don’t we all get hurt feelings sometimes?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zI3_pnUU3k

PAST EVENT: Pig Business screening: CIJ investigative film week

As part of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Investigative Film Week, producer Tracy Worcester and associate producer Alastair Kenneil will discuss how to avoid libel and lawsuits when conducting investigations after a screening of their film Pig Business. The documentary charts the four-year investigation into the industrialisation of pig farming.

The film begins in the UK, where Worcester discovers how supermarket labels are an unreliable guide to how and where pork has been produced. She takes us on a journey to the USA, Brazil and Poland and visits the offices of corporate leaders, European bureaucrats and banks. She finds policies that support a farming system of poor quality, damaging to the environment and which pushes traditional farmers out of business.

Tuesday, 2 February 2010 at 18.30
£5 full price; £4 concessions
Oliver Thompson Theatre
City University London
Northampton Square,
London EC1V 0HB

SUPPORT INDEX'S WORK