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This is a guest post by Mark Stephens
The new Supreme Court, in its first ruling on an issue of law, has decided that open justice requires the naming of Mohammed al Ghabra, whom the lower courts had protected by anonymity orders. In the first contested issue before the new court, Mr Geoffrey Robertson QC told the judges on behalf of the media “[Y]our first term docket reads like alphabet soup”, referring to the number of appellants referred to only by letters of the alphabet, because they had been granted “pseudonym orders” by lower courts.
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In this morning’s Times, Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano, who has been in hiding since writing his best-selling expose of Neopolitan organised crime, decries the increasingly gangsterish tactics of the Italian government in dealing with its critics:
Anyone in Italy today who criticises the Government or the Prime Minister knows what to expect in return — not a contrary opinion, but a campaign aimed at discrediting him.
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Tomorrow a large demonstration promoted by the Italian National Press Federation is being held in Rome — a strange protest for a democratic state. Never before has the press had to demonstrate to safeguard its own freedom in Europe. Italy looks more and more like an anomaly in the heart of Western Europe.
Obviously, Italy cannot be compared with China, Cuba, Burma or Iran. For us to demonstrate in defence of freedom of expression means to demand to be allowed to carry out one’s work without being personally attacked. It means denouncing an all-encompassing climate of menace.
As Saviano says, it’s astounding that this happens in the European Union in 2009. You can read more about the situation in Index on Censorship’s report here.
Hat tip: Nick Cohen
Listen here to John Kampfner‘s discussion of free expression and the far right, broadcast 23 September on BBC Radio 3’s Nightwaves
Human Rights Watch’s suspension of military analyst Marc Garlasco under Israeli pressure raises questions about its own commitment to free expression, says Richard Silverstein of Tikun Olam
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