It’s not often that a cause that unites Jeremy Corbyn on the hard left of the Labour Party and David Davis on the libertarian right of the Conservative Party (although the government’s attempts to push through 42 days detention without charge forged some strange alliances). But the arrest of Damian Green, the Conservative spokesman on [...]
Index on Censorship editor Jo Glanville was a ‘witness’ on Radio 4′s the Moral Maze last night, discussing the BNP list leak, and whether attitudes towards BNP members working in social services etc showed we had ‘lost our nerve over freedom of expression and [become] a more intolerant, illiberal society?’ (the BBC’s words). If you [...]
The Burmese people are still experiencing the backlash from the Saffron Revolution, with more and more writers, satirists and dissidents being locked up. Read Index on Censorship and Article 19′s joint statement on the situation here (pdf).
Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne very nearly lost his job recently after he was accused of ‘talking down’ the pound. He’s managed to ride the storm, but it was a close-run thing. Osborne should of course be able to say what he likes, but it’s not exactly a free speech issue, is it? In Latvia, [...]
Yesterday I had the privilege of taking part in a discussion at the Foreign Press Association with Egyptian writer Ali Salem. He was in London to accept the Civil Courage Prize, an award set up by US businessman (and co-founder of the Paris Review) John Train to honour ‘steadfast resistance to evil at great personal [...]
Over at Comment is Free, Index on Censorship editor Jo Glanville is talking about the privatisation of censorship on the Internet. “[The Internet] is a revolution not just in terms of technology, but in terms of who does the censoring. It’s no longer just the big boys — the media magnates, the state, corporations; there [...]
Caspar Melville of New Humanist has an update on the cancellation of a poetry reading in Cardiff after threats of disruption by Stephen Green of Christian Voice. Gerry Johnson, Managing Director of Waterstone’s, has been in touch to explain the chain’s position. He claims that poet Patrick Jones deliberately set out to create controversy. Read [...]
Stephen Green of Christian Voice managed to get a poetry reading shut down this week. Waterstones of Cardiff cancelled the launch of Patrick Jones’s Darkness is Where the Stars Are after threats of disruption from the fundamentalist Christian. Meanwhile, Mr Green seemed to threaten the Baltic Gallery and art collector Anita Zabludowicz after the CPS [...]
It didn’t take District Judge Nicholas Evans long to come up with a verdict in the case of the five Plane Stupid protesters charged under SOCPA this morning. All were found guilty and four ordered to pay a fine and costs totalling £365. The youngest defendant, Tamsin Omand, was ordered to pay just £150 costs, [...]
As the UK government tries to quell a Labour rebellion against plans for a third runway at Heathrow, five young climate change protesters went on trial today at Westminster Magistrates Court in London. Leo Murray, Olivia Chessell, Alexander George, Tamsin Omond and Graham Thompson of the environmental group Plane Stupid are all being prosecuted under [...]
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