‘Privacy and freedom from state intrusion’

30 Jul 13 | About Index, Campaigns, Press Releases

Stephen Fry, Bianca Jagger and Anish Kapoor sign Index on Censorship petition to end mass surveillance by the NSA, GCHQ and other governments.

Celebrities, artists, activists and politicians have signed an Index on Censorship petition calling for Europe’s leaders to oppose mass surveillance by the US, UK and other governments, as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Supporters of the petition include writer and actor Stephen Fry, activists Bianca Jagger and Peter Tatchell, writer AL Kennedy, artist Anish Kapoor, blogger Cory Doctorow and Icelandic politician Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir. 15 international NGOs are also backing the petition.

Actor Stephen Fry said:

‘Privacy and freedom from state intrusion is important for everyone. You can’t just scream “terrorism” and use it as an excuse for Orwellian snooping.’

Director of Campaigns and Policy, Marek Marczynski said:

‘Since the revelations about the activities of the NSA and GCHQ, Europe’s Heads of State have been slow to take action over the mass surveillance of European and other citizens.  Although some have voiced concerns, there has been no commitment to taking joint action. People from around the world are signing Index’s petition because they want Europe’s leaders to say no to mass surveillance, and condemn it as both an invasion of privacy and a threat to free speech.’’

As well as calling for Europe’s leaders to state on the record their opposition to mass surveillance, the petition demands that mass surveillance is on the agenda at the next European Council Summit in October.

The petition is at: http://chn.ge/1c2L7Ty and is being promoted on social media with the hashtag #dontspyonme

It is supported by Index on Censorship, English PEN, Article 19, Privacy International, Open Rights Group and Liberty, European Federation of Journalists, International Federation of Journalists, PEN International, PEN Canada, PEN Portugal, Electronic Frontier Foundation, PEN Emergency Fund, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), the National Union of Somali Journalists and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

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Don't mention the war (or the offside rule)!

24 Jan 11 | Uncategorized

What do Jon Gaunt and Stephen Fry have in common?

At first glance, nothing. But both have got in trouble for utterly innocuous references to World War II.

The BBC has apologised to the Japanese Embassy after a joke on Fry’s QI show about Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese man who managed to be a victim of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (he survived both). Fry quipped that Yamaguchi was the unluckiest man on Earth. The Japanese Embassy in London wrote to the BBC, pointing out that they felt the joke was in poor taste. The BBC duly said sorry.

Meanwhile, radio phone-in host Jon Gaunt has won the right to appeal a court decision against him after he was dismissed for calling a councillor a “health Nazi” on air. Gaunt lost his original case for unfair dismissal after a court found his comment to be “offensive and abusive”, with “no factual content or justification”.

Normally, I’d say that it’s important that people have the right to be offensive. But there’s something about these stories that I find baffling: I just don’t think either of these comments are actually that offensive. I don’t think Fry’s case warrants a complaint from Japanese diplomats, and I really don’t think that Gaunt’s comment warranted a dismissal.

Yamaguchi was pretty unlucky, wasn’t he? And the councillor on Gaunt’s show was being a bit of a health Nazi in saying that smokers shouldn’t be allowed to adopt children.

Have the events of World War II now become so hallowed that we can’t even loosely base any joke or barb on them?

Meanwhile, in stuff-that-is-a-bit-offensive news, Sky Sports football presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys have been suspended from duty (for one night, admittedly), after some off-colour comments about a female linesman and the offside rule. The two men were caught off guard commenting on Sian Massey’s decision to allow play to continue in the build up to Liverpool’s first goal in their game against Wolves yesterday, trotting out that pub dullard convention about women not understanding the offside rule. Gray and Keys have apologised to Massey, and TV replays have shown she was right in her decision. Which suggests at least one woman understands the offside rule better than Andy Gray.