This is a guest post by Martin Bright The 30-year-rule is dead in the water and has been for some time. The combined effect of the Freedom of Information Act and an increasing willingness on the part of government departments to release historically significant documents has left this arbitrary measure looking increasingly absurd in the [...]
This article was originally published on Comment is Free Ted Kennedy died last week. At least, I think it was last week that I had an alert from Wikipedia: “Kennedy suffered a seizure at a luncheon following the Barack Obama Presidential inauguration on January 20, 2009. He was removed in a wheelchair, and died shortly [...]
This is a guest post by Chris Ames Yesterday’s ruling that pre-Iraq war cabinet minutes must be released is a vindication for Labour’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, although whether the government will see it that way is another matter. It shows that the most sensitive and controversial discussions at the heart of government are [...]
According to this report, the London Olympic Delivery Authority has been forcing contractors to sign ‘draconian’ deals, essentially barring them from discussing conditions, progress, costs (including environmental and health and safety costs) or anything else of interest about the development of the Olympic site in east London for six whole years. The contracts certainly seems [...]
Impartiality can be a form of censorship, says Jo Glanville Like all good censorship rows, the fallout from the BBC’s decision not to transmit the DEC appeal for Gaza has generated more publicity than it would ever have otherwise received. Every news bulletin over the weekend reminded us of the appeal – and of the [...]
Our friend Roby Alampay of the South East Asian Press Alliance has an interesting post on Comment is Free on the iniquities of Thailand’s lèse majesté laws: ‘The charge of lese-majesty [sic] can be brought against anyone by anybody else. In the past year, police summoned an academic who questioned the royal family’s involvement in [...]
Or maybe do. For those of you who Twitter, you can now find Index on Censorship at http://twitter.com/Indoncensorship. For those of you who don’t — why not?
The Advertising Standards Authority has (sensibly, it should be said) decided not to get involved in an argument over whether God is likely to exist or not. Despite complaints by Britain’s leading Christian campaigning group/some bloke with broadband (delete according to one’s own prejudices), Christian Voice, against the so-called ‘atheist bus’ advertising campaign, launched by [...]
Gordon Brown has backed down from an attempt to make MPs’ expenses exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, after Lib Dem and Conservative MPs refused to support the move. The campaign against the proposal was spearheaded by Unlock Democracy, with the support of Index on Censorship. Over at the wonderful freedom of information campaign [...]
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