by admin | Jul 17, 2021 | Campaigns, censorship, Government, media freedom, nuj, Press
“Too often the state uses official secrets legislation to hide things that are embarrassing, such as the involvement of the British State in torture or rendition.” Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith and co-founder of Reprieve, a human rights not-for-profit...
by admin | Jul 16, 2021 | Campaigns, freedom of information, international, whistle blowing
Saturday 3 July was WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s 50th birthday, but he did not have much to celebrate. The attempt to extradite Assange to the United States was rejected in January, but bail was refused and he continues to be held in Belmarsh prison pending an...
by admin | Apr 28, 2021 | Campaigns, Government, nuj, Press, Reviews
The other day I came across a surprising quotation from Sir Alan Moses (see below in paragraph 5). He was the first head of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), the latest incarnation of what passes for a UK press regulator. Ipso came into being...
by admin | Mar 23, 2021 | Campaigns, Government, unions
Today, 23 March 2021 will go down in history as the day when a titanic struggle for justice finally came to an end. On that day the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of 14 men sentenced for their involvement in picketing during the 1972 national building...
by admin | Mar 18, 2021 | BBC, Campaigns, media ownership, nuj, Public Service Broadcasting
The Media Reform Coalition (MRC) marked the launch of its Media Democracy Festival this week (see: https://www.mediareform.org.uk/blog/media-democracy-festival-2021) by publishing a new report on media ownership in the UK. It makes depressing, although predictable,...
by admin | Jan 6, 2021 | Campaigns, freedom of information, international, media freedom, whistle blowing
It’s been a week of mixed fortunes for Julian Assange. On Monday many were taken aback by the ruling of district judge Vanessa Baraitser not to allow the US to extradite Julian to stand trial on criminal charges of conspiracy, hacking and violations of the 1917...